^.^^g^^^ToTFS"^ 


BX  9418  .S73 

1907 

Stevenson,  Richard 

Taylor, 

1853-1919. 

John  Calvin, 

the  statesman 

lUtn  0f  i\\z  minqixim 


John  Calvin:  The  Statesman 


'By 

Richard  Taylor  Stevenson 

Chair  of  History  Ohio  Wes- 
leyan  University 


CINCINNATI:    JENNINGS   AND   GRAHAM 
NEW    YORK;    EATON    AND    MAINS 


Copyright,  1907,  by 
Jennings  and  Graham 


IN  MEMORY 

OF 

Jig  ^ntk^, 

WITH  FILIAL  GRATITUDE 
AND  LOVE 


/ 


PROLOGUE 

As  A  system  of  theology  Calvinism  has  no  place 
in  this  volume.  As  a  mighty  force  in  the  organ- 
ization of  ecclesiastical  and  political  disciplines  it 
will  demand  fair  if  not  full  treatment.  Contrasted 
with  Lutheranism  Calvinism  was  the  real  strength 
of  the  Reformation.  Extinguished  in  France  only 
after  a  brutal  war,  glorious  in  the  Netherlands,  the 
power  behind  the  throne  of  Elizabeth,  forbidding 
the  banns  between  the  rocky  fastnesses  of  Scotland 
and  the  sunny  plains  of  France,  and  in  America 
holding  a  thin  frontier  between  the  seaboard  and 
the  savage  until  the  day  dawn  of  a  fairer  oppor- 
tunity broke  upon  the  young  Republic,  this  new 
power  justifies  all  efforts  at  explanation. 

Sober  judges  like  Mark  Pattison  have  said,  "In 
the   sixteenth   century   Calvinism   saved   Europe;" 
like  Bancroft,  ''He  that  will  not  honor  the  memory    ^ 
and  respect  the  influence  of  Calvin  knows  little  of 
the  history  of  American  liberty ;"  even  John  Morley 
has  lately  declared,  "To  omit  Calvin  from  the  forces    \ 
of  Western  evolution  is  to  read  history  with  one  /' 
eye  shut."    John  Calvin  interests  us  far  more  than 

5 


I 


6  Proi^ogu^. 

his  doctrine  of  predestination.  "History,  as  Dol- 
linger  has  said,  is  no  simple  game  of  abstractions ; 
men  are  more  than  doctrines.  It  is  not  a  certain 
theory  of  grace  that  makes  the  Reformation ;  it  is 
Luther,  it  is  Calvin.  Calvin  shaped  the  mold  in 
which  the  bronze  of  Puritanism  was  cast.  That 
commanding  figure,  of  such  vast  power  yet  some- 
how with  so  little  luster,  by  his  unbending  will,  his 
pride,  his  gift  of  government,  for  legislation,  for 
dialectic  in  every  field,  his  incomparable  industry 
and  persistence  had  conquered  a  more  than  pon- 
tifical ascendency  in  the  Protestant  world.  He 
meets  us  in  England,  as  in  Scotland,  Holland, 
France,  Switzerland,  and  the  rising  England  across 
the  Atlantic."^  John  Calvin  was  the  "sharp  edge 
of  Protestantism"  drawn  against  two  forces ;  Roman 
Catholicism,  more  virile  than  ever  in  its  new  organ- 
ization and  moral  revival,  and  the  pagan  impulse 
which  swept  in  with  the  abuse  of  the  freedom  of  the 
Reformation.  Calvin's  discipline  was  as  potent  as 
his  theology. 

The  most  permanent  contributions  of  Calvin's 
genius  lay  less  in  the  line  of  theology  than  of  states- 
manship. Calvin  cherished  the  belief  that  the  Ref- 
ormation could  be  accomplished  only  by  regener- 
ation, by  separation,  and  by  negation.  His  change 
of  view-point  with  regard  to  the  Church  in  which 
he  saw  that  men  could  conform  with  giving  up 
their   sins,   his   experiences   at   Geneva,   where  he 


•  Morley's  Cromwell,  p.  47. 


PROI.OGUK. 


found  preachings,  tumults,  and  image-breakings 
with  no  true  improvement,  brought  him  face  to  face 
with  his  "master  problem,  namely,  by  what  means 
could  he  best  secure  the  expression  of  a  changed 
faith  in  a  changed  life."^  Calvin's  chief  title  in 
modern  history  is  that  of  the  statesman,  not  of  the 
theologian.  And  we  agree  with  the  scholar  of  Ox- 
ford in  his  statement  that  we  have  less  cause  to  be 
grateful  to  Calvin  for  the  system  called  Calvinism 
than  for  the  Church  he  organized.  His  theology 
was  derivative  and  less  original  than  his  polity, 
yet  he  so  interpreted  the  former  as  to  make  the 
latter  its  logical  outcome. 


Dr.  Fairbairn.    Reformation.    Camb.  Mod.  History,  2,  364. 


NoTK. — The  manuscript  was  in  the  hands  of  the  printer 
before  the  issue  of  Professor  Williston  Walker's  "John 
Calvin,"  by  Putnam.  References  to  this  volume,  an  admir- 
able one,  have  been  possible  in  the  proof  sheets. 

R.  T.  S. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 

I.    Calvin's  Youth,   -         -         -         - 

PAGE 

II 

II. 

The  Age  and  its  Problems, 

26 

III. 

Wanderings,          .         -         .         . 

-       42 

IV. 

Geneva  before  Calvin,     - 

61 

V. 

First  Sojourn  in  Geneva, 

-       76 

VI. 

Years  of  Exile, 

91 

VII. 

Return  to  Geneva,      -        -        - 

-     112 

VIII. 

The  New  Discipline, 

128 

IX. 

Calvin  and  Servetus,  - 

-     145 

X. 

The  Man — Last  Days, 

161 

XL 

Statesmanship,      -        -        - 

182 

John  Calvin:  The  Statesman 

CHAPTER  I. 

CALVIN'S    YOUTH. 

Threescore:  miles  northeast  of  Paris,  on  the 
railroad  to  Brussels,  at  the  foot  and  on  the  slopes 
of  a  hill,  is  Noyon.  Through  it  there  runs  a  small 
stream  which  joins  the  Gise  a  little  farther  down 
its  course.  The  town  was  an  ancient  cathedral 
center,  and  on  account  of  its  many  churches,  con- 
vents, and  priests  was  called  Noyon-la-Sainte. 
There,  on  July  lO,  1509,  was  born  John  Calvin. 
His  ancestors,  according  to  M.  Le  Franc,  were 
fishermen,  or,  as  other  narrate,  bargemen,  who  lived 
on  the  river  Oise.  His  father,  Gerard  Cauvin,  or 
Calvin,  of  stern  and  severe  character,  became  a 
bourgeois  of  Noyon  in  1497,  ^o^e  to  a  position  of 
responsibility  as  apostolic  secretary  to  the  Bishop 
of  Noyon,  and  became  intimate  with  leading  fam- 
ilies of  the  neighborhood.  He  married  the  daughter 
of  one  of  the  prominent  citizens  of  the  town,  Le 


li  John  Cai^vin:  The:  Statesman. 

Franc,  who  had  a  good  fortune.  The  bride  of 
Gerard,  Jeanne  Le  Franc,  was  handsome  and  pious. 
Though  she  died  young,  she  lived  long  enough  to 
impress  her  ideas  upon  the  precocious  boy,  and  is 
said  to  have  taken  him,  after  the  custom  of  the  day, 
upon  various  pilgrimages  to  near-by  shrines.  On 
her  death  the  father  took  another  wife,  of  whom 
nothing  is  known. 

John  Calvin  had  four  brothers  and  two  sisters, 
of  whom  two  brothers  died  young,  while  two  were 
provided  with  benefices  through  the  father's  influ- 
ence. Charles,  the  oldest,  was  made  chaplain  of 
the  cathedral  in  1518,  and  the  younger,  Antoine, 
chaplain  of  Tournerolle,  but  later,  with  a  sister, 
Marie,  embraced  the  evangelical  faith  and  followed 
their  reformer-brother  to  Geneva.  The  other  sister 
appears  to  have  remained  in  the  Catholic  Church. 
His  brother  Charles  turned  heretic  or  infidel,  was 
excommunicated  in  1531,  and  died  October  i,  1537, 
and  for  refusing  the  sacrament  on  his  deathbed  was 
buried  between  the  four  pillars  of  a  gibbet  the  year 
after  John  announced  his  system  to  the  world,  "as 
if  to  repeat  the  startling  contrast  of  Esau  and  Jacob, 
reprobation  and  election  from  the  same  womb."  ^ 

The  legend  of  John's  having  been  educated  at  a 
charity  school  has  been  abandoned.  His  father 
was  a  man  of  importance,  and  obtained  Church 
preferments  for  his  sons.  At  the  age  of  twelve 
John  secured  a  "benefice,"  or  living,  the  rent  of 
some  church  property  lying  at  Eppeville,  a  name 


CaIvVin's  Youth.  13 

he  afterwards  used  as  a  pseudonym.  September 
29,  1527,  he  became  curate  of  Saint  Martin  de 
Martheville,  and  on  the  5th  of  June  he  exchanged 
this  for  a  better  one  at  Pont  I'Eveque.  The  sons 
were  well  educated  in  a  college  of  Noyon,  where 
John  had  for  companions  the  children  of  the  Seig- 
neur of  Mommor.  With  them  he  went  to  Paris, 
August,  1523,  to  enter  college,  living  with  his  uncle 
Richard  near  the  Church  of  Saint  Germain  I'Auxer- 
rois.  From  the  bell  tower  of  this  old  church  a  half 
hundred  years  afterwards  rang  out  the  doom  of  the 
Huguenots  on  Saint  Bartholomew's  night.  Little 
did  any  one  dream  of  the  mighty  influence  of  the 
thin-faced  lad  who  daily  walked  under  the  shadow 
of  that  tower.  He  was  known  as  a  studious  book- 
worm. His  intimate  friend  and  follower,  Beza, 
said  of  him  that  during  this  period  he  was  "relig- 
ious after  a  remarkable  fashion,  and  a  severe  censor 
of  all  the  vices  of  his  companions."  He  early  got  \ 
the  name  of  ''The  Accusative  Case,"^  a  nickname  j 
suggestive  of  the  leadership  in  morals  and  scholar-  / 
ship  of  a  French  lad  in  school  life  nearly  four  cen-  ' 
turies  ago. 

A  quarrel  between  his  father  and  the  Chapter 
of  Noyon  may  have  had  its  influence  in  chilling 
the  warmth  of  John's  affection  for  his  home  Church. 
"At  the  bottom  of  it,"  says  M.  Le  Franc,   "are 


1  Walker,  p.  42,  questions  the  real  foundation  of  this  ;  he  cred- 
its it  to  Calvin's  "  renegade  one-time  friend,"  Frangois  Baudoin,  later 
his  calumnist. 


14  John  Cai^vin:  The:  Statesman. 

money  difficulties.  Gerard  Calvin  was  embarrassed 
in  his  affairs,  refused  to  render  his  accounts  to  the 
Chapter,  and  put  himself  in  complete  opposition  to 
it.  The  influence  of  this  quarrel  on  the  mind  of 
the  future  reformer  must  have  been  considerable." 
How  much  of  this  is  speculation  may  be  matter  for 
profitless  discussion.  However,  the  father  was  ex- 
communicated by  the  Chapter,  fell  ill,  and  died,  his 
son  having  come  home  from  Paris  to  bid  him  fare- 
well and  do  the  last  filial  offices.  The  fact  that  he 
was  buried  in  unconsecrated  ground  did  not  appeal 
favorably  to  the  proudly  sensitive  young  collegian 
from  Paris.  There  was  not  lacking  in  the  family 
a  substantial  background  of  anti-papal  feeling,  and 
though  we  can  not  know  how  extensive  this  was, 
it  is  not  hard  to  conceive  that  John  reflected  the 
spirit  of  his  family  and  of  his  native  Picardy.  The 
state  of  this  section  of  France  throws  some  light 
upon  the  growing  antipathy  to  Rome  on  the  part 
of  the  young  scholar.  Picardy  was  open  to  all  the 
winds  that  blew  across  the  Rhine.  Robert  Olivetan 
was  a  Picard,  and  a  kinsman  of  Calvin.  He  had 
become  a  friend  in  Strassburg  of  Martin  Bucer, 
a  reformer  intimate  with  Luther  and  of  marked 
influence  among  men  of  the  new  faith.  Picardy 
was  celebrated  for  its  love  of  contention,  or  say 
the  principle  of  free  speech,  and  the  Bishop  of 
Noyon  and  the  Chapter  were  engaged  in  a  "per- 
petual quarrel."  So  the  fitting  environment  was 
ready  for  the  nursing  of  a  reformer. 


CaIvVin's  Youth.  15 

Calvin  was  not  an  accident.  The  desire  for  a 
better  state  of  things  in  Church  and  State  was 
strong  in  his  region.  The  city  became  for  awhile 
a  sort  of  headquarters  for  the  reformers  in  the 
north  of  France.  In  the  persecution  which  at- 
tended the  zeal  of  the  inquisitor-general,  striving 
to  recover  Noyon  to  the  Mother  Church,  the  clergy 
stood  together  with  the  plain  people,  and  forced  the 
aristocrats  to  yield  to  the  established  order  of  the 
old  faith,  and  so  Noyon  fell  back  into  the  arms  of 
Rome.  Thirty  years  after  the  death  of  Calvin, 
Cardinal  Alexander  de  Medicis  passed  through 
Noyon  and  asked  to  be  shown  the  home  of  Calvin. 
He  then  inquired  if  there  were  any  Protestants  in 
the  town.  His  guide  said:  "Not  a  single  one!" 
This  was  doubtless  an  exaggeration,  but  it  ex- 
pressed the  fact  that  Noyon  had  exhausted  its 
tendency  to  reform  in  furnishing  to  the  world  one 
reformer. 

At  the  age  of  fourteen  Calvin  entered  the  Col- 
lege de  la  Marche.  His  great  instructor  in  Latin 
was  Mathurin  Cordier,  to  whom  he  afterwards 
dedicated  his  Commentary  on  First  Thessalonians. 
Cordier  afterwards  followed  his  pupil  to  Geneva, 
and  was  appointed  director  of  the  College  of  Ge- 
neva, where  he  died  the  same  year  with  Calvin. 
From  the  College  de  la  Marche  Calvin  was  trans- 
ferred to  the  more  strictly  ecclesiastical  College  de 
Montaigu,  and  there  he  studied  philosophy  and 
theology  under  a  learned  Spaniard.    To  this  same 


i6  John  CaIvVin:  The:  Statesman. 

college  came,  in  February,  1528,  Ignatius  Loyola, 
in  preparation  for  his  life-work,  in  which  his  most 
exacting  duties  were  to  be  found  in  antagonism  to 
the  toil  of  Calvin. 

We  can  not  discover  anything  unusual  or  spec- 
tacular in  the  college  career  of  the  young  student 
from  Noyon,  save  that  he  easily  distanced  all  his 
rivals.  He  seems  to  have  had  no  heart  for  the  riot- 
ous hours  of  the  young  collegians  of  Paris,  and 
gave  the  police  no  trouble  in  their  efforts  to  main- 
tain order  when  "town  and  gown"  met  in  a  mid- 
night brawl.  He  was  reticent,  proud,  religious, 
and  studious  beyond  measure  or  wisdom.  Beza 
says  he  was  even  then  ''doctor  potius  quam  aud- 
itor"— ^teacher  rather  than  hearer. 

At  first  his  father  had  longed  for  his  gifted  son 
to  become  priest,  but  changed  his  purpose.  The  son 
said :  ''My  father  saw  that  the  study  of  law  gener- 
ally enriched  those  who  pursued  it,  and  this  hope 
made  him  suddenly  change  his  mind  with  regard 
to  me.  And  thus  it  happened  that  being  withdrawn 
from  the  study  of  philosophy  in  order  to  learn  the 
law,  I  compelled  myself  to  learn  the  law,  so  as  to 
obey  my  father's  will.  But  all  the  while  God  in 
His  secret  providence  made  me  finally  turn  my 
head  in  another  direction."  M.  Guizot  is  inclined 
to  believe  that  his  father's  will  was  not  the  principal 
guiding  motive  in  Calvin's  resolution.  For  when 
he  began  his  studies  in  Paris  he  was  a  special  stu- 
dent  of   Cordier,   a  sympathetic   onlooker   at  the 


CaIvVin's  Youth.  17 

time  of  the  rising  tide  of  reform.  Also  his  fellow- 
countryman,  Olivetan,  was  moving  with  the  new 
current  of  religion.  Such  influences  could  not  have 
failed  to  tell  upon  the  mind  of  Calvin.  When  in 
1529  he  abandoned  the  Church  for  the  law,  he 
went  to  Orleans  and  Bourges.  One  of  his  teachers 
was  Pierre  de  TEstoile,  a  learned  jurist;  another, 
Alciate  of  Milan,  an  elegant  scholar  in  ancient  liter- 
ature ;  while  more  important  still,  another  was  Mel- 
chior  Wolmar,  eminent  in  Greek,  who  read  Demos- 
thenes with  his  pupils  for  a  time,  and  then  turned 
to  the  New  Testament.  Calvin  became  the  favorite 
pupil  of  Wolmar.  His  industry  and  abstemious- 
ness, his  freedom  from  any  wildness  to  which  others 
were  inclined,  and  his  excesses  in  studying  left  for 
years  a  notable  memory  in  Orleans,  and  at  the  same 
time  laid  the  foundation  for  his  plague  for  the  rest 
of  his  life — dyspepsia. 

He  was  made  Bachelor  of  Laws  at  Orleans, 
February  14,  1 531,  and  on  leaving  the  university 
was  offered  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws  without 
the  usual  fees.  Already  his  rank  as  a  scholar  is 
exhibited  in  the  fact  that  when  the  question  of  the 
divorce  of  Henry  VHI  was  referred  to  the  scholars 
on  the  Continent,  Calvin  was  consulted.  He  ex- 
pressed himself  against  the  lawfulness  of  marriage 
with  a  brother's  widow.  In  the  summer  of  1531 
he  went  to  Noyon  to  see  his  father  depart  this  life, 
and  returned  to  Paris  with  his  brother  Antoine. 
Still  deepening  his  knowledge  of  the  classics,  he 


i8  John  Cai^vin:  The;  Statesman. 

does  not  seem  to  have  had  any  thought  of  breaking 
with  the  CathoHc  Church.  Nor  does  he  discuss  re- 
Hgious  matters  in  correspondence  with  kis  intimate 
friends,  Hke  Francois  Daniel.  Daniel  had  asked 
him  to  introduce  his  sister  to  the  superior  of  a  con- 
vent, and  Calvin  wrote  back  that  he  had  done  so, 
adding  that  he  had  given  her  a  few  admonitions, 
as  that  she  should  not  trust  in  her  own  strength, 
but  put  all  confidence  in  God. 

Financial  embarrassment  compelled  him  to  bor- 
row two  crowns  from  his  friend,  Duchemin,  to 
whom  he  expressed  the  hope  of  speedy  repayment, 
yet  would  none  the  less  remain  a  debtor  in  grati- 
tude for  timely  aid.  The  peculiar  maturity  of  his 
mind,  his  avoidance  of  a  share  in  the  noisy  excite- 
ments so  common  to  student  life  in  his  day,  his 
intimacy  with  his  teachers,  and  his  high  moral  char- 
acter marked  him  as  a  rare  personality.  The  charge 
of  selfish  coldness  which  has  dripped  from  the  pens 
of  writers  like  Audin  disappears  in  the  light  of  the 
knowledge  of  his  warm  friendships.  Three,  young 
men  of  like  mind  with  himself  were  Duchemin, 
Connam,  and  Daniel.  While  they  felt  the  need  of 
reform,  they  refused  to  break  with  the  Romish 
Church,  nor  do  Calvin's  letters  to  them  at  this 
period  show  traces  of  discontent  with  the  ancient 
communion.  But  when  his  mind  began  to  consider 
the  question  of  separation,  no  stronger  proof  of  his 
capacity  for  friendship  can  be  found  than  the  fact 
that  though  his  leaving  appeared  inevitable,  he  and 


Calvin's  Youth.  19 

they  remained  friends.  The  first  letter  in  Bonnet's 
four  octavo  vohimes  is  to  Daniel,  and  as  late  as 
1559  Daniel  renewed  the  correspondence  with  Cal- 
vin, and  entrusted  to  him  the  education  of  his  son 
Pierre.  Calvin's  first  work  was  announced  by  the 
author  to  Daniel  in  the  words,  ''Tandem  jacta  est 
alea."  Caesar  had  said  just  before  crossing  the 
Rubicon,  "Let  the  die  be  cast."  Calvin  could  not 
have  meant  by  his  half-playful  adaptation  of  the 
old  phrase  with  which  the  Roman  had  turned  over 
a  new  leaf  of  history,  that  he  was  about  to  do  the 
same.  And  yet  it  fell  not  far  from  it.  Calvin  was 
still  a  Humanist  when  he  published  his  Commentary 
on  Seneca's  "De  Clementia."  He  sent  a  copy  to 
Erasmus,  calling  him  "the  honor  and  delight  of  the 
world  of  letters."  This  was  his  first  book.  In  it 
there  is  evidence  of  a  Stoic  quality  of  mind  which 
never  left  him.  He  published  it  at  his  own  expense, 
April,  1532.  In  it  may  be  seen  ''his  characteristic 
love  for  the  nobler  type  of  Stoicism,  great  famil- 
iarity with  Greek  and  Roman  literature,  masterly 
Latinity,  rare  exegetical  skill,  clear  and  sound  judg- 
ment,"^ but  with  no  allusion  to  Christianity.  Cal- 
vin's "De  dementia"  has  been  considered  by  some 
to  have  the  aim  of  an  apologist,  as  if  he  hoped  to 
save  his  fellows  of  the  new  faith  from  the  wrath 
of  the  king ;  and  to  this  Henry,  Dorner,  and  Guizot 
give  their  names ;  but  others  like  Stahelin  deny  it. 
Schaflf  says,  "It  is  purely  the  work  of  a  humanist. 


1  Dr.  Schaflf. 


20  John  Cai^vin:  The:  State^sman. 

not  of  an  apologist  or  a  reformer."  It  is  not  ad- 
dressed to  the  king,  and  in  the  implied  comparison 
of  the  king  to  Nero  Calvin  could  not  have  hoped 
to  allay  any  bitter  feeling  in  the  royal  heart  towards 
the  Protestants.  The  production  is  that  of  a  bril- 
liant young  scholar,  an  admirer  of  the  ancient  clas- 
sics, a  soul  tempered  by  the  finer  influences  contrib- 
uted to  civilization  by  Stoicism.  Letters,  and  not 
religion,  at  this  time  in  life  held  him  in  charm. 

Suddenly  just  as  a  notable  career,  one  marked 
by  the  devotion  of  men  of  letters,  and  the  favors 
of  magnates  of  the  Church,  began  to  dawn  before 
him,  he  joined  the  ranks  of  the  reformers.  He  says 
it  was  a  "sudden  conversion"  (subito  conversio). 
But  this  can  not  mean  that  the  new  direction  of  all 
his  life  currents  was  without  thought  or  conscious 
battle.  He  could  not  have  been  ignorant,  as  an 
educated  man,  and  one  whose  marvelous  precocity 
attracted  attention  in  every  circle  he  joined,  of  the 
stir  of  the  Reformation,  favored  by  the  men  of  let- 
ters and  opposed  by  the  clergy  at  large.  He  soon 
appeared  as  an  interpreter  of  the  Scriptures,  and 
his  extraordinary  familiarity  with  them,  his  insight 
into  their  spiritual  bent,  tell  the  story  of  preparation 
for  the  change.  There  was  both  slow  approach 
and  sudden  illumination.  While  he  says,  "God 
Himself  produced  the  change,  He  instantly  sub- 
dued my  heart  to  obedience,"  yet  we  must  think 
that  this  "sudden  conversion"  was  the  result,  the 
climax,  of  much  previous  severe  thought,  and  pos- 


Cai^vin's  Youth.  21 

sibly  of  struggle.  The  question  is  wrapped  in  ad- 
ditional difficulty  for  the  reason  that  Calvin  does 
not  mention  the  time,  place,  or  circumstances  of  the 
decisive  change.  Le  Franc  puts  the  time  in  the 
latter  part  of  the  year  1532,  when  Calvin  was  in 
Orleans,  or  possibly  in  Paris.^  According  to  Beza 
the  conversion  took  place  as  far  back  as  1528,  or 
even  1527.  Bolsec  and  Audin,  whose  narratives 
are  in  spots  the  veriest  libels,  trace  the  great  change 
to  wounded  ambition,  but  in  utter  ignorance  of 
Calvin's  character. 

It  will  be  recalled  that  in  telling  his  friend  Dan- 
iel of  his  work  on  "Clemency"  he  had  said  ''the 
die  was  cast."  None  the  less  fitting  is  the  phrase 
to  describe  the  present  turn  of  life,  but  now  he 
throws  himself  on  the  "mercy"  of  God.  In  mem- 
orable words  he  discloses  his  wretchedness  of  soul, 
not  long  after  the  issue  of  his  book  on  "Clemency." 
"After  my  heart  had  long  been  prepared  for  the 
most  earnest  self-examination,  on  a  sudden  the  full 
knowledge  of  the  truth,  like  a  bright  light,  dis- 
closed to  me  the  abyss  of  errors  in  which  I  was 
weltering,  the  sin  and  shame  with  which  I  was  de- 
filed. A  horror  seized  my  soul,  when  I  became  con- 
scious of  my  wretchedness  and  of  the  more  terrible 
misery  that  was  before  me.  And  what  was  left, 
O  Lord,  for  me,  miserable  and  abject,  but  with 
tears  and  cries  of  supplication  to  abjure  the  old 
life  which  Thou  condemned  and  to  flee  into  Thy 

1  With  this  Walker  agrees,  p.  96. 


22  John  Cai^vin:  The:  Statesman. 

path?"  He  tells  us  that  he  had  failed  to  find  in- 
ward peace  through  the  usual  methods  of  the 
Church.  "Only  one  haven  of  salvation  is  there  for 
our  souls,  and  that  is  the  compassion  of  God,  which 
is  offered  to  us  in  Christ."  Calvin  was  now  a  free 
man  inwardly.  And  if  he  had  any  doubts  concern- 
ing his  outward  course  they  were  soon  dispelled. 
He,  like  Csesar,  was  the  man  to  cross  Rubicons 
with  a  whole  heart.  Martin  Luther's  conversion 
was  no  more  significant,  nor  was  that  of  John  Wes- 
ley, for  the  long  future  of  the  Reformation  and  of 
Constitutional  liberty  hung  upon  the  changed  life 
of  this  young  Frenchman  of  twenty-three.  He  had 
not  been  immoral ;  he  now  became  evangelical.  He 
had  not  lacked  in  Latinity,  reading  his  favorite 
Cicero  through  annually;  but  now  he  lifted  the 
Bible  far  above  all  books.  He  had  never  been  a 
lover  of  misrule,  nor  a  destructionist,  for  he  re- 
vered the  Church  of  his  fathers ;  but  now  he  became 
the  mightiest  builder  of  the  age,  like  all  truly  great 
men,  loving  order,  and  stretched  a  long  arm  out 
over  the  generations  to  come. 

The  shy  scholar  becomes  the  refuge  of  troubled 
souls.  He  had  found  the  key  to  liberty,  and  men 
came  to  him  for  the  opening  of  the  door  from  their 
prison  houses  of  doubt  and  sin.  Though  he  tried 
to  escape  the  numbers  that  thronged  his  place  of 
residence,  he  could  not  fail  to  see  that  God  was 
about  to  use  him  for  the  help  of  his  fellows,  and  to 
those  who  sought  his  counsel  he  gave  the  keynote 


Calvin's  Youth.  23 

of  his  theology  and  his  piety  in  the  words  with 
which  he  began  and  closed  his  exhortations:  "If 
God  be  for  us,  who  can  be  against  us?" 

Calvin  had  not  been  ordained  priest  in  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church,  and  had  never  read  mass, 
though  he  had  early  received  the  tonsure,  destined 
as  he  was  for  the  priesthood.  Like  Melanchthon 
he  was  a  layman.  It  was  not  until  1536  that  he 
fully  entered  the  ranks  of  ordained  preachers,  when 
by  the  election  of  presbyters  and  council,  and  with 
the  consent  of  the  whole  people,  he  was  chosen 
pastor  and  began  his  "regular"  ministry.  He  had 
no  hierarchy  back  of  him,  but  a  democracy. 

The  crisis  and  breach  with  Rome  came  in  1533. 
The  king  had  been  offended  because  of  an  insult 
offered  to  his  sister  by  the  Sorbonne  in  their  con- 
demnation of  her  "Mirror  of  a  Sinful  Soul," — a 
mystical  reverie,  which  omitted  to  mention  purga- 
tory and  the  intercession  of  saints,  and  was  there- 
fore judged  to  have  denied  them.  Over  this  there 
grew  up  a  division  between  the  liberals  and  the 
traditionalists,^nd  a  slight  rising  of  the  tide  towards 
a  moderate  reform  was  apparent.  Sev&ral  preach- 
ers whose  sympathies  leaned  towards  reformation 
were  permitted  to  preach  in  Paris  pulpits.  The 
new  rector  of  the  university  was  Nicholas  Cop, 
the  son  of  a  distinguished  physician,  and  a  warm 
friend  of  Calvin.  All  Saints'  Day  brought  with  it 
the  duty  of  delivering  the  annual  oration,  and  a 
month  after  his  election,  November  i,  1533,  before 


24  John  Cai^vin:  The:  Statesman. 

a  large  audience  in  the  Church  of  the  Mathurins, 
the  new  rector  spoke  after  a  fashion  to  injure  him- 
self and  his  friend,  John  Calvin.  Cop  had  asked 
Calvin  to  write  the  address  or  to  make  substantial 
contributions  to  it,  and  the  result  was,  as  Beza  tells 
the  incident,  "very  different  kind  of  oration  from 
the  ordinary  one,  for  he  spoke  of  religious  matters 
with  great  freedom."  In  the  speech  Calvin  made 
a  plea  for  the  New  Testament  kind  of  reformation, 
and  boldly  attacked  the  musty  theologians  of  the 
day  as  a  set  of  sophists,  ignorant  of  the  true  Gos- 
pel. "They  teach  nothing  of  faith,  nothing  of  the 
love  of  God,  nothing  of  the  remission  of  grace, 
nothing  of  justification,  or  if  they  do  so,  they  per- 
vert and  undermine  it  all  by  their  laws  and  soph- 
istries. I  beg  of  you,  who  are  here  present,  not  to 
tolerate  any  longer  these  heresies  and  abuses."^ 

The  word  was  out  and  could  not  be  recalled. 
It  was  sufficient  to  rouse  against  Cop  all  the  ire  of 
the  conservatives.  The  Sorbonne  interpreted  the 
address  as  a  manifesto  against  the  Holy  Church, 
and  condemned  it  to  the  flames.  Tiie  rector  of  a 
month  fled  to  Basel.  Calvin  fell  into  their  accu- 
sation also,  so  we  judge  his  share  in  the  speech  was 
not  a  secret.  He  took  temporary  refuge  in  the 
dwelling  of  a  vine-dresser  in  the  Fauburg  St.  Vic- 
tor, changed  his  clothing,  was  let  down  from  a 


1  Calvin's  share  in  Cop's  Address  is  asserted  by  many  authori- 
ties, and  denied  by  as  many  more. 


Calvin's  Youth.  25 

window,'  Pauline  fashion,  and  escaped  from  Paris 
carrying  a  hoe  upon  his  shoulder  to  perfect  his  dis- 
guise.    The  police  were  quick  upon  his  heels,  yet 
found  nothing  save  his  books  and  papers. 
John  Calvin  now  becomes  a  wanderer. 


CHAPTER  11. 
THE  AGE  AND  ITS  PROBLEMS. 

Bkfor]^  taking  up  the  all  too  meager  incidents 
of  Calvin's  life  in  his  wanderings,  we  must  attempt 
to  familiarize  our  minds  with  the  age  in  which  he 
was  to  play  such  a  distinguished  part.  He  touched 
so  many  lives,  the  most  illustrious  of  the  century, 
kings,  bishops,  scholars,  statesmen,  the  opponent  of 
some,  the  pride  of  some,  the  spiritual  father  of 
some,  feared  and  hated  and  loved  from  the  Tiber 
to  the  Thames,  and  credited  with  greatness  by  all 
who  were  qualified  to  give  any  decision,  that  one 
will  surely  go  astray  if  the  background  of  his  emi- 
nent services  be  not  painted  in. 

That  "great  and  happy  thing"  which  men  call 
the  Renaissance  was  a  timely  recovery  of  the  glories 
and  charm  of  Greek  and  Roman  culture.  One  of 
the  most  brilliant  products  of  this  spirit  as  it  swept 
over  Europe  bears  the  stamp  of  Calvin's  literary 
genius  upon  it,  his  first  appearance  in  the  field  of 
letters.  The  glorious  air  first  breathed  upon  Italy, 
then  upon  Germany,  France,  and  England.  The 
sixteenth  century  rises  to  splendid  proportions,  full- 
orbed  and  far-shining.  If  men  did  not  all  see  fully, 
26 


The  Age  and  its  Probi^ems.  27 

they  gazed  eagerly.  Ulrich  von  Hutteti,  rejoicing 
in  the  new  light  and  filling  his  lines  with  the  fresh 
enthusiasm  for  Germany,  and  the  passion  against 
Rome,  cried  out:  "O  century  when  studies  bloom 
and  spirits  awake;  it  is  happiness  to  live  in  thee!" 
Stars  of  the  first  magnitude  In  nearly  all  lines  of 
mental  activity  and  practical  daring  glow  with  un- 
diminished splendor,  even  to  eyes  that  find  it  diffi- 
cult to  compass  the  glory  of  the  twentieth  century. 
It  is  the  age  of  Luther  and  Raphael,  both  born  the 
same  year,  1483 ;  of  Erasmus  and  Michelangelo, 
one  the  master  of  the  new  learning  and  the  other 
the  noblest  artist  of  his  time ;  the  day  of  Columbus 
and  Cabot;  of  Leonardo  da  Vinci;  of  Francois 
Rabelais ;  of  Vittoria  Colonna,  Henry  VIII,  Charles 
V,  Chevalier  Bayard,  Magellan  and  Loyola;  of 
Zwingli,  Coligny,  and  William  of  Orange ;  of  John 
Knox,  Francis  I,  Melanchthon,  Titian,  Correggio, 
Leo  X,  Cortez  and  Copernicus;  an  age  plethoric 
with  discoverers,  artists,  architects,  sculptors,  states- 
men, theologians,  soldiers,  thinkers,  a  noble  band, 
men  of  truths,  men  of  errors,  men  of  great  parts 
and  of  famous  deeds.  John  Calvin  holds  high  rank 
in  this  illustrious  company. 

In  the  expressive  phrase  of  Guizot,  "Two  con- 
trary winds  were  blowing  over  Europe  at  this 
period,  one  carrying  with  it  skepticism  and  licen- 
tiousness, while  the  other  breathed  only  Christian 
faith  and  the  severest  morality."  It  was  an  age 
of  intoxication,  of  reconstruction,  of  conflict.    The 


28  John  Cai^vin:  Th^  Statesman. 

spread  of  the  literary  spirit  had  serious  conse- 
quences for  the  Church,  though  it  was  not  at  first 
clearly  seen.  Along  with  the  revival  of  letters 
there  came  a  renewed  study  of  the  Fathers  of  the 
Church,  and,  above  all,  of  the  Scriptures.  Human- 
ism was  welcomed  to  different  lands  with  somewhat 
varying  emphasis.  In  Italy  it  bred  a  skepticism 
which  concerned  itself  little  enough  with  the  moral 
betterment  of  the  Church  and  society ;  in  Germany 
the  study  of  the  classics  did  not  corrupt  minds  like 
that  of  Reuchlin,  and  bent  itself  in  sympathy  with 
the  effort  to  found  the  new  University  of  Witten- 
berg, only  seven  years  before  the  birth  of  Calvin ; 
in  England  men  like  Colet  and  More  smiled  at  the 
dawn  with  a  double  joy,  that  of  the  saint  as  well 
as  that  of  the  student ;  and  later  on  both  for  those 
who  stayed  in  the  Roman  Church  and  for  those 
who  revolted,  the  new  learning  was  a  fortress  and 
strong  tower,  for  in  its  arsenal  the  Catholic  and  the 
Reformer,  the  followers  of  Loyola  and  of  Calvin 
alike  sharpened  their  blades  for  fierce  encounter. 
The  failure  of  the  Popes  to  use  the  Renaissance 
with  a  view  to  the  moral  improvement  of  human 
society  as  well  as  its  sesthetic  advance  tells  the 
story  of  a  double  loss.  The  over-emphasis  of  art- 
loving  popes  upon  the  art  products  of  their  day, 
especially  in  the  early  decades  of  the  century,  re- 
veals a  one-sided  quality  of  soul  which  in  the  end 
lost  the  very  good  at  which  wealth  and  taste  and 
skill  were  aiming.    Pope  Julius  II  represented  the 


The  Age  and  its  Problems.  29 

zenith  of  the  effort  to  secure  for  the  Church  the 
magnificent  service  of  the  art  of  the  Renaissance. 
He  had  the  three  greatest  minds  that  any  ruler 
could  hope  for.  Bramante,  ''perhaps  the  most  uni- 
versal and  gifted  mind  that  ever  used  its  mastery 
over  architecture,"  planned  in  St.  Peter's  the  type 
of  the  majestic  extension  of  the  Church.  In  the 
roof  of  the  Sistine  Chapel  Michelangelo  depicted 
the  return  of  mankind  to  God,  aided  not  only  by 
Judaism,  but  also  by  Graeco-Roman  paganism, 
showing  a  positive  relationship  between  classical 
antiquity  and  Christianity.  Above  all,  in  the  four 
pictures  by  Raphael,  painted  in  the  Camera  delta 
Segnatiira  the  year  of  Calvin's  birth,  can  be  seen 
the  aspiration  of  the  soul  of  man  in  each  of  its 
faculties,  man  going  Godward  by  the  sesthetic  per- 
ceptions, by  philosophy,  by  Church  order,  and  by 
theology.  The  Papacy  of  the  Renaissance  led  Eu- 
rope in  art.  This  Luther  could  not  see.  What  he 
saw  was  a  ''Holy  City"  forsaking  the  Decalogue. 
But  its  neglect  of  morals  led  to  a  decline  in  art. 

Dr.  Kraus,  of  ^lunich,  a  late  authority  in  this 
field,  believes^  that  the  decline  began  with  the  fol- 
lies and  frailties  of  Leo  X,  who,  though  his  reign 
has  been  compared  to  that  of  Augustus,  passed  his 
life  in  self-indulgence,  while  the  north  of  Europe 
was  bursting  the  bonds  which  bound  it  to  Rome. 
As  far  back  as  1498  Niccolo  Macchiavelli  saw  in 
the  flames  about  Savonarola  no  prospect  of  reform 


iCamb.  Mod.  Hist,  vol,  2. 


30  John  Calvin:  Th]^  Statesman. 

from  Rome.  And  though  a  better  man  came  with 
the  election  of  Adrian  VI,  a  "Dutch  saint,"  \vho 
could  not  understand  the  newly-discovered  Lao- 
coon,  saying,  "These  are  heathen  idols,"  he  failed 
to  reconcile  the  Italian  Renaissance  with  the  con- 
science of  the  Germanic  world. 

In  1523  Clement  VII  was  elected  Pope,  but  as 
a  contemporary  remarked,  "He  lost  courage  and 
let  go  the  rudder."  Vacillating  between  Charles  V 
and  Francis  I  he  beheld  his  holy  city  sacked  by  the 
rough  soldiery  of  Charles  after  the  battle  of  Pavia, 
perhaps  the  most  important  military  event  of  the 
century.  In  1533  he  gave  his  great-niece,  yet  in 
her  teens,  to  the  royal  house  of  France,  a  terrible 
gift,  for  thirty-eight  years  afterwards  she  contrived 
to  flood  the  gutters  of  Paris  with  the  blood  of 
Huguenots  on  St.  Bartholomew's  Night.  During 
his  pontificate  the  unity  of  the  Catholic  Church  was 
destroyed,  and  half  of  Europe  found  another  cen- 
ter of  its  faith.  Italian  corruption,  a  fatal  con- 
fusion of  politics  and  religion,  the  incapacity  of  a 
man  who  was  neither  venal,  nor  proud,  nor  licen- 
tious, wrought  out  a  bitter  atonement  for  the  sins 
of  a  selfish  predecessor.  The  harmonization  of 
mediaeval  with  modern  thought  and  life,  and  the 
perpetuation  of  an  unbroken  Catholicism,  all  mis- 
carried because  all  strong  moral  force  was  gone 
from  the  Italian  people.  Italy  had  burned  its  last 
prophet  in  the  Piazm  della  Signore  at  Florence. 
It  had  also  blown  out  the  candle  of  its  glory  as 


The  Age  and  its  Problems.  31 

the  leader  of  European  culture.  Painting  and  sculp- 
ture took  a  downward  path  after  the  death  of 
Raphael  and  Leonardo.  ''Not  only  the  Muses  and 
the  Graces  wept  by  Raphael's  grave,  the  whole 
Julian  epoch  was  buried  with  him."^ 

When  the  election  of  Alessandro  Farnese  as 
Paul  III,  1534,  inaugurated  the  Counter-Reforma- 
tion, it  proved  too  late  to  save  to  Rome  its  distinc- 
tion of  being  both  the  intellectual  and  the  religious 
center  of  Christian  Europe.  The  results  were  fatal 
to  the  hope  of  a  universal  ecclesiasticism  which 
Bramante  suggested  in  his  plans  for  St.  Peter's, 
and  Raphael  glorified  in  his  cartoons.  It  has  been 
remarked  by  Newman  that  the  greatest  misfortune 
lay,  and  still  lies,  in  the  fact  that  the  Latin  races 
never  realized,  and  do  not  even  yet  realize,  what 
they  have  lost  in  the  Germanic  defection.  Yet  it  is  as 
striking  a  fact  that  the  Reformed  Church  in  all  its 
branches  discovered  its  bridge  of  transfer  from  the 
bank  of  Mediaeval  autocracy  to  that  of  Modern 
democracy  in  a  Latin  of  the  Latins,  through  whose 
high  character,  magnificent  culture,  and  persistent 
will  it  was  enabled  to  offset  the  aroused  energy  of 
Rome,  its  quickened  conscience,  its  giant  organiza- 
tion with  an  energy,  a  consecration,  and  a  concep- 
tion of  the  worth  of  the  individual  man  able  to 
withstand  the  concentrated  pressure  of  the  whole 
Roman  Catholic  world. 

A  significant  difference  appears  in  the  symbols 


1  Camb.  Mod.  Hist.  2,  28. 


32  John  CaivVin:  Thk  Statesman. 

of  the  two  opponents.  The  old  was  getting  itself 
splendidly  fashioned  in  marble;  the  new  clearly 
printed  on  the  flying  page;  for  with  the  building 
of  St.  Peter's  on  the  banks  of  the  Tiber,  and  with 
the  issue  of  the  ''Institutes"  of  John  Calvin  at  Ge- 
neva, we  reach  the  two  giant  conceptions  of  the 
century.  The  black  and  white  page  contrast  oddly 
enough  with  the  golden  dome.  The  one  is  objec- 
tive, the  other  appeals  to  the  inner  eye.  The  one  is 
the  proudest  monument  of  religious  institutional- 
ism,  the  other  beats  its  exacting  notes  for  an  irre- 
sistible march  into  the  future.  Within  the  walls 
of  the  Church  are  assembled  the  most  sacred  relics 
of  the  Catholic  faith.  From  Raphael  to  Canova, 
Art  has  done  her  utmost  to  perpetuate  the  elaborate 
symbolism  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  accumu- 
lated in  the  passing  of  a  thousand  years.  In  the 
pages  of  Calvin,  Logic  reached  the  limit  in  mighty 
effort  to  exalt  the  idea  of  the  Sovereignty  of  God. 
St.  Peter's  is  the  conclusion  of  an  impulse  which 
led  men  for  so  many  centuries  to  express  their  re- 
ligious feelings  by  sensuous  images  of  the  grand, 
the  obscure,  and  the  terrible.  "It  represents  the 
absorption  of  the  religious  by  the  aesthetic  element, 
which  is  the  sure  sign  that  the  religious  function 
of  architecture  had  terminated.  The  age  of  the 
cathedrals  had  passed.  The  age  of  the  printing- 
press  had  begun. "^ 

The  two  extremes  of  the  French  Renaissance 


Lecky,  Rationalism ;   i.  267. 


Th^  Agi^  and  its  Probi,e;ms.  33 

were  the  theologian  and  the  satirist.  Over  against 
John  Calvin  stood  Francois  Rabelais.  Of  no  other 
two  men  of  their  age  have  so  many  contradictory 
opinions  been  held.  A  modern  Frenchman,  Vol- 
taire, heir  to  the  scholarship  in  which  they  both 
reveled,  as  skeptical  as  the  one  and  more  critical 
than  the  other  in  his  assaults  upon  the  Church, 
more  decent  than  Rabelais,  less  so  than  Calvin, 
declared  that  the  works  of  the  great  humorist  were 
"the  most  filthy  ordure  that  a  drunken  monk  could 
possibly  vomit."  He  did  indeed  make  a  coarse 
picture  of  the  corruption  of  the  times  in  monastery 
and  castle,  not  without  grim  and  terrible  satire.  He 
was  at  once  sensualist,  scholar,  and  skeptic,  yet  he 
remained  in  the  Church.  Coleridge  declared  him 
to  be  among  the  deepest  minds  as  well  as  the  bold- 
est thinker  of  his  age.  Charles  Kingsley  found  him 
strangely  "evangelical."  His  versatility  of  humor 
has  led  some  to  place  him  in  the  class  with  Shakes- 
peare. By  no  stretch  of  the  imagination  can  he  be 
reckoned  in  sympathy  with  Calvin,  nor  can  Calvin 
be  thought  of  as  looking  with  indifference  upon 
the  riot  with  which  Rabelais  has  peopled  his  pages. 
Yet  in  their  scorn  of  the  life  of  the  flesh  to  which 
the  monks  devoted  their  days  and  nights,  both  men 
represented  the  changing  mind  of  the  new  day, 
the  view  of  a  consistent  life  which  men  were  every- 
where demanding  of  those  who  handled  sacred 
things. 

Yet  the  wit  of  Rabelais  was  utterly  lacking  in 

3 


34  John  Cai^vin  :  The)  Stati^sman. 

restraint,  and  his  chidings  were  without  conscience, 
for  while  he  scorned  the  frauds  and  folHes  of  the 
papal  court  and  lashed  without  limit  of  decency  the 
sins  of  the  clergy,  he  continued  to  live  in  their  com- 
munion. The  absolution  of  Clement  VII  and  the 
license  of  Francis  I  secured  him  the  privileges  of 
a  chartered  libertine.  He  became  the  Momus  of  his 
time,  and  his  entire  possession  of  the  double  spirit 
of  France,  its  love  of  logic  and  its  love  of  life,  its 
learning  and  its  licentiousness,  made  him  at  once 
a  communicant  and  a  bacchanal. 

In  Calvin  we  have  the  antidote  to  Rabelais.  If 
the  one  was  an  ascetic,  the  other  was  a  satyr.  The 
one  drank  before,  during,  and  after  writing;  the 
other  was  content  with  a  repast  of  bread  and  water 
once  in  thirty-six  hours.  The  one  was  lord  of  mis- 
rule in  tavern  or  monastery;  the  other  the  lord 
of  order  in  Geneva.  The  one  wrote  a  farce  for 
merriment,  the  other  a  tragedy  which  man  finds 
too  serious  for  laughter.  For  the  man  of  Geneva 
life  was  a  mission,  and  logic  a  flame.  The  one  was 
all  too  short  for  folly,  the  other  too  sure  for  doubt. 
Thus  in  the  sublime  conviction  that  he  fully  under- 
stood God's  will  for  the  world,  Calvin  endeavored 
to  translate  his  world  of  reason  into  one  of  prac- 
tice, faithful  to  the  last  link  of  what  he  believed  an 
indissoluble  logic. 

The  Rabelaisian  spirit  could  not  abide  in  Ge- 
neva while  Calvin  ruled  there.  The  two  worlds 
were  mutually  exclusive.     "The  demoniac  of  Ge- 


Th^  Age  and  its  Problems.  35 

neva,"  as  the  humorist  called  the  puritan,  was  the 
mightiest  in  his  realm,  and  saved  it  from  the  de- 
moralization to  which  the  ebb-tide  towards  pagan- 
ism was  carrying  it. 

In  another  direction  the  demand  for  such  a 
leader  as  Calvin  is  most  notable.  In  the  definite 
theological  retrogression  from  Lutheranism,  even 
before  Luther's  death,  the  battle  lines  were  drawn 
not  between  Lutheranism  and  Jesuitism,  but  be- 
tween Jesuitism  and  Calvinism.  In  their  leadership, 
their  organization,  their  emphasis  upon  education 
thxCy  were  not  unlike.  Each  consecrated  everything 
to  the  purpose  of  its  life  and  mission.  Each  tested 
to  the  full  the  other's  power  of  offense  and  defense. 
"It  is  here,"  says  Dr.  A.  V.  G.  Allen,  ''that  Calvin- 
ism finds  its  place  in  the  philosophy  of  history. 
Its  merit  lay  in  its  ability  to  resist  Jesuitism  on  its 
own  ground.  It  did  not  hesitate  to  identify  Cal- 
vin's opinions  with  the  divine  will.  In  this  respect 
its  audacity  may  be  equaled,  but  is  not  surpassed 
by  the  disciples  of  Loyola.  Calvinism  was  the  fight- 
ing mood  of  the  Reformation."^ 

That  we  may  give  full  measure  to  this  concep- 
tion of  the  place  of  Calvinism,  we  must  know  some- 
what more  of  the  Spanish  soldier,  pilgrim,  saint, 
and  organizer  whose  work  it  was  to  save  the  Ro- 
man Church  from  the  assaults  of  the  man  of  Ge- 
neva. The  story  of  the  wounding  of  Loyola  on 
the  ramparts  of  Pampeluna,  and  the  collapse  of  the 


1  Continuity  of  Christian  Thought,  p.  337. 


36  John  Cai^vin:  Th^  Statesman. 

defense  when  he  fell  with  both  legs  shattered  by 
a  cannon  shot  is  well  known.  His  nerve  was  equal 
to  the  pain  of  having  one  leg  broken  again  on  find- 
ing it  had  been  ill  set,  when  he  had  a  protruding 
bone  sawed  off,  while  he  calmly  watched  the  sur- 
geon's work.  On  his  sick  bed  he  asked  for  a  ro- 
mance. None  was  at  hand,  and  instead  he  was 
handed  a  life  of  Christ  and  the  lives  of  some  saints. 
The  ambitions  of  the  soldier  were  changed,  and  he 
rose  from  the  sick  bed  another  man.  He  offered 
himself  as  a  distributor  of  alms,  and  tried  to  go  to 
Palestine  pilgrim-wise,  staff  in  hand.  Finding  that 
he  lacked  much  to  fit  him  for  his  life  duty,  he 
turned  himself  at  thirty-three  years  of  age  to  the 
school  bench.  He  was  far  behind  Calvin  in  his 
Latin  declensions,  nor  was  he  an  apt  pupil.  He 
had  not  yet  taken  holy  orders,  and  by  his  zeal  he 
made  himself  "distinctly  odious."^  He  goes  to  the 
University  of  Paris,  and  enrolls  as  a  freshman, 
February,  1528.  He  mingled  in  proportions  dic- 
tated not  by  good  judgment  so  much  as  by  an  iron 
will,  the  most  lofty  aims,  the  most  austere  practices, 
and  the  drudgery  of  difficult  study.  He  finally 
overcame  all  obstructions  and  took  his  degree  of 
Master  of  Arts  in  1534.  Of  more  aid  to  him  than 
his  degree  were  his  six  chosen  companions,  each 
one  of  whom  he  had  won  individually.  Never  was 
there  a  band  of  devoted  followers  picked  to  more 
clearly  defined  aims.    Though  the  men  he  gathered 


1  Hughes'  lyoyola.    24. 


Th]^  Ag^  and  its  Proble;ms.  37 

around  him  were  unlike,  he  bred  in  them  the  rarest 
devotion  to  his  ideal,  enlisting  the  courtier  Xavier, 
ambitious  for  letters ;  the  youthful  prodigy  Laynez, 
Doctor  of  Philosophy,  and  the  tender  shepherd  boy, 
Lefevre,  to  lay  aside  self  in  the  cause  of  the  society. 
A  French  historian  has  said:  "Loyola  could  apply 
to  himself  admirably  well  that  proverb  which  says, 
'When  a  Spaniard  is  driving  a  nail  into  the  wall, 
and  the  hammer  breaks,  the  Spaniard  will  drive  it 
in  with  his  head !"  Of  none  was  this  truer  than  of 
Loyola,  who  counted  no  cost  to  get  his  plans  to 
work,  through  to  the  end  of  days. 

On  the  27th  of  September,  1540,  the  Society  of 
Jesus  received  from  the  Pope  its  bull  of  confirma- 
tion, and  the  order  was  ready  for  the  work  of  cap- 
turing the  next  generation,  to  check  the  decadence 
of  the  Church,  and  to  offset  the  increasing  might 
of  Calvinism.  Loyola  died  in  1556,  and  Calvin  in 
1564,  but  they  had  laid  down  before  their  going 
the  lines  of  the  grand  strategy  on  which  the  battle 
lasted  far  on  into  succeeding  decades.  Their  fol- 
lowers made  for  the  cities,  where  they  planted  their 
schools.  Of  Loyola  some  one  wrote,  contrasting 
him  with  other  Catholic  orders: 

"Bernardus  valles,  monies  Benedictus  amabat, 
Oppida  Franciscus,  magnas  Ignatius  urbes." 

That  is:  The  monks  of  Clairvaux  loved  their  val- 
leys;  the   Benedictines   their    mountain-tops;   the 


38  John  Cai^vin:  The  Statejsman. 

Franciscans  the  rural  towns;  Ignatius  the  great 
cities. 

Action  and  reaction  came  with  startHng  sudden- 
ness. The  very  year  of  England's  breach  with  the 
papacy,  Loyola  took  his  Master's  degree  at  Paris. 
The  birth  of  this  order  on  French  soil  was  ominous 
for  the  future  of  the  Reformation  in  France.  Even 
before  the  establishment  of  the  plans  of  Loyola 
the  Protestants  had  endured  martyrdom  under  di- 
rect encouragement  of  the  king.  They  faced  perse- 
cution with  wonderful  courage,  yet  were  not  able 
to  cope  with  the  rising  energy  of  Romanism,  unless 
some  equal  might  should  direct  in  their  behalf  the 
uncertain  future.  While  Francis  I  was  crowding 
to  the  wall  his  subjects  who  were  professing  the 
new  faith,  and  burning  alive  the  simple' Vaudians 
of  Provence  who  dared  to  break  with  Rome,  the 
Reformation  was  at  a  standstill  in  Italy;  in  Ger- 
many it  had  laid  the  foundations  of  war  between 
the  emperor  and  the  Protestant  princes,  and  Lu- 
ther's closing  days  were  made  sad  on  account  of 
fraternal  strife;  the  death  of  Henry  VIII  threw 
England  back  into  the  folds  of  the  Roman  Church 
and  left  his  daughter  to  light  the  fires  of  Smith- 
field  ;  Rome  was  renewing  her  vigor  and  preparing 
for  advance  not  only  in  Europe,  but  in  the  New 
World  she  had  lately  claimed  for  her  own.  It  was 
a  day  of  genuine  alarm  for  the  Protestants.  Luther 
had  raised  a  storm,  but  was  not  the  leader  to  con- 
trol its  fierce  energies  in  the  salvation  of  the  reform 
for  which  he  had  given  his  life. 


The  Age  and  its  Probi.e;ms.  39 

In  special,  Luther's  methods  of  securing  the 
results  of  his  first  efforts  were  not  to  the  liking 
of  a  large  part  of  the  new  forces  engaged  in  the 
exodus  from  Rome.  History  was  slowly  tending 
towards  democracy.  Luther  failed  to  implant  in 
the  minds  of  his  host  the  principle  of  self-sustenta- 
tion.  He  leaned  too  heavily  upon  the  princes.  His 
congregations  were  but  half  emancipated  from  old 
doctrines  and  old  relations  with  authority.  They 
held  truth  with  an  alloy  of  falsehood.  It  was  a 
time  when  half  measures  were  sure  to  prove  un- 
equal to  the  tremendous  task.  To  quench  the  fires 
of  Philip  of  Spain,  to  raise  men  in  Scotland  or 
France  to  face  the  princes  of  the  House  of  Lor- 
raine, or  to  match  the  craft  of  Jesuitism  they 
needed  a  sharper  definition  of  differences  from 
Rome,  and  a  closer  alliance  with  the  new  life  of  the 
modern  world  expressing  itself  in  forms  of  pop- 
ular control,  and  a  simpler  texture  of  organization 
with  which  to  front  the  age-long  power  of  the 
Popes.  These  did  not  come  from  Wittenberg. 
While  Luther  resisted  forces  which  would  have 
crushed  weaker  men,  and  goes  to  the  end  of  time 
one  of  the  immortals  of  human  progress,  it  yet 
remains  that  he  held  to  beliefs  that  a  more  logical 
I  intellect  would  have  disowned,  and  cherished  cus- 
toms which  a  more  radical  reformer  would  have 
surrendered.  He  seems  himself  to  have  felt  that 
he  had  not  touched  the  secret  springs  of  a  perma- 
nent victorv,  and  the  nearer  he  drew  to  his  close 


40  John  Cai^vin:  Th^  State:sman. 

the  more  it  became  evident  that  no  adequate  pro- 
vision for  a  permanent  expansion  of  Protestant 
doctrine  and  practice  was  to  be  hoped  for  under  the 
direction  of  the  great  German. 

Then  it  must  be  remembered  that  as  the  more 
eager  rebels  against  the  Roman  Church  pushed 
forward  to  simpler  and  more  secure  positions,  "re- 
vival and  reaction  followed  so  fast  on  the  heels 
of  reform  that  had  the  Lutheran  Church  stood 
alone,  neither  the  eloquence  of  its  founder,  nor  the 
sagacity  and  steadfastness  of  the  Saxon  Electors, 
nor  the  vigor  of  Landgrave  Philip  could  have  saved 
it/'^  No  truly  observant  reader  of  the  conflicting 
spirits  of  this  wonderful  time  will  fail  to  note  that 
the  tendencies  working  for  reform  were  not  ex- 
hausted by  Luther,  for  it  did  not  follow  that  what 
he  did  not  do  could  not  be  done  by  another.  A 
more  radical  and  complete  reformation  was 
wrought  out  by  the  leader  of  the  Swiss,  Zwingli. 
Their  rebound  from  Rome  was  less  traditional  and 
more  historical  and  rational  than  in  the  case  of  the 
Germans.  While  both  leaned  upon  civil  powers, 
these  powers  were  not  the  same.  In  Luther's  case 
the  princes,  in  Zwingli's  case  the  free  people,  backed 
up  the  movement  entrusted  to  their  several  leaders. 
And  when  we  reach  the  use  that  Calvin  made  of 
the  opportunity  offered  to  him  in  Geneva,  whereby 
the  ''elders'' — laymen — could  freely  express  them- 
selves as  influential  agents  in  the  organization  of 


1  Dr.  Pairbairn.    Camb.  Hist.  2.  $45* 


The:  Act  and  its  Problems.  41 

the  Church,  it  is  not  hard  to  point  the  path  trod 
by  the  Reformed  Church  as  it  ran  through  Holland, 
England,  Scotland,  and  America,  widening  as  it 
went  the  thoroughfare  in  which  free  thought  and 
free  religion,  democracy,  and  constitutional  govern- 
ment were  to  find  their  fullest,  their  most  glorious, 
their  most  lasting  illustrations. 


CHAPTER  III. 
WANDERINGS 


Cai^vin  beat  none  too  hasty  a  retreat  from  Paris. 
The  scandal  of  the  oration  was  great.  The  king 
wrote  to  the  Parhament  enjoining  diHgent  pro- 
cesses against  the  "accursed  Lutheran  sect." 
Within  a  week  there  were  fifty  Lutherans  in  prison. 
But  the  fever  of  persecution  quickly  died  down  in 
the  veins  of  the  vacillating  ruler.  On  his  return  to 
Paris,  January  24,  1534,  after  effecting  a  secret 
treaty  with  the  German  Protestant  princes,  the  hunt 
for  heretics  ceased.  But  only  for  a  time.  All 
hopes  of  lasting  quiet  were  blown  to  the  winds 
by  a  bit  of  fanatic  folly  on  the  part  of  over-zealous 
Protestants.  One  Faret,  a  servant  of  the  king's 
apothecary,  placarded  a  tract  ''on  the  horrible, 
great,  intolerable  abuses  of  the  popish  mass" 
throughout  Paris,  October  18,  1534,  and  the  citizens 
rubbed  their  eyes  in  the  morning  to  find  their  walls 
and  fences  disgraced  with  a  most  offensive  placard. 
Even  the  door  of  the  royal  chamber  at  Fontaine- 
bleua  was  smutched  with  a  copy.  It  was  a  deplorable 
act  of  folly,  and  aroused  a  furious  persecution 
against  innocent  people  who  not  only  had  no  part 
42 


Wande:rings.  43 

in  the  matter,  but  were  innocent  of  any  purpose  to 
offend  the  king.  Before  Christmas  hundreds  were 
languishing  in  prison,  and  many  went  to  the  stake. 
Wrath  was  whitehot.  Both  Church  and  State  took 
deep  offense,  and  mingled  in  mediaeval  style  peni- 
tence for  real  or  imagined  neglect  of  duty  towards 
the  true  faith,  with  immediate  and  harsh  penalties 
against  the  heretics.  January  21,  1535,  about  eight 
in  the  forenoon  an  extraordinary  procession  issued 
from  the  Church  of  St.  Germain  I'Auxerrois,  headed 
by  priests  bearing  precious  relics  of  various  sorts. 
In  due  order  came  the  king  with  head  uncovered, 
and  after  him  princes  of  the  blood,  nobles,  and  high 
officials.  The  oldest  citizen  of  Paris  had  never 
seen  such  a  cortege,  nor  so  vast  a  multitude,  filling 
pavement,  doorway,  window,  and  even  roof.  With 
measured  tread  the  procession  moved  through  the 
principal  streets.  Six  times  it  paused,  each  time 
before  a  temporary  altar.  Beside  the  altar  there 
hung  a  Lutheran,  swinging  in  air  from  a  movable 
iron  frame,  while  below  him  burned  a  glowing  fire. 
He  was  now  lowered,  now  lifted,  and  his  sufferings 
prolonged  until,  at  the  pausing  of  the  royal  party, 
he  was  finally  dropped  into  the  flames.  Such  was 
the  penance  and  such  the  persecution.  Thus  king 
and  people  righted  themselves  before  God! 

We  have  slightly  anticipated  events,  overlapping 
some  in  the  career  of  Calvin  with  the  efforts  of 
Paris  to  get  even  with  heresy.  From  the  day  of  his 
flight  from  the  capital  to  the  time  of  his  arrival 


44  John  Cai.vin:  The:  Statesman. 

in  Geneva  Calvin  wandered  three  years  as  a  home- 
less evangelist,  studying  at  the  home  of  a  friend, 
preaching,  and  writing  in  behalf  of  the  Reforma- 
tion. He  is  now  in  Southern  France,  then  in 
Switzerland,  Italy,  finally  in  Geneva.  Dates  and 
places  are  not  always  easy  to  determine.  Calvin's 
life  is  not  one  of  the  sort,  like  Luther's,  filled  with 
incidents  of  great  dramatic  value,  and  one  has  to 
get  into  the  deeper  values  of  his  career,  the  inner, 
the  hidden,  and  the  indirect,  to  properly  estimate 
his  place  in  history.  Yet  a  few  facts  which  have 
been  preserved  show  him  to  have  been  a  man  equal 
to  outward  emergencies.  May  4,  1534,  he  resigned 
his  benefices  at  Noyon  and  Pont  I'Eveque,  and 
after  a  brief  imprisonment  at  Noyon  he  was  liber- 
ated. It  was  then  he  finally  renounced  Roman 
Catholicism.  Fearing  the  forces  of  disorder  which 
lurked  in  the  uncertain  development  of  Protestant- 
ism, he  composed  a  tract  against  one  of  the  peculiar 
articles  of  faith  of  the  Anabaptists,  that  of  sleep 
between  death  and  the  day  of  judgment.  He  did 
not  make  his  appeal  as  in  his  first  work  to  the 
classics,  but  to  Holy  Scripture,  for  evidence  in 
overthrowing  the  unsound  views  of  the  Anabap- 
tists. Their  unintelligent  zeal  he  separated  from 
their  fanatic  faith,  and  left  the  evangelical  position 
in  clear  sunlight.  Later  on  we  find  Calvin  under 
the  protection  of  Queen  Margaret  of  Navarre,  in 
her  native  city  of  Angouleme.  Calvin  lived  with 
a  wealthy  friend,  Louis  du  Tillet,  canon  of  the 


Wanderings.  45 

cathedral.  His  unstrained  intimacy  here  and  ever 
with  men  of  letters  and  wealth  and  honorable  po- 
sition was  of  pronounced  benefit  to  him.  In  this 
place  of  seclusion  he  began  his  ^'Institutes/'  He 
also  gave  aid  to  his  kinsman,  Olivetan,  in  revising 
and  translating  the  Bible  into  French.  The  work 
appeared  at  Neufchatel  in  June,  1535,  with  a 
preface  by  Calvin.  On  going  to  Nerac,  the  tiny 
capital  of  the  queen,  he  became  acquainted  with 
Le  Fevre  d'Etaples,  the  old  Humanist  and  father 
of  French  Protestantism.  Near  Poictiers,  so  the 
legend  affirms,  he  celebrated  for  the  first  time  the 
Lord's  Supper  with  some  friends  in  a  cave,  which 
for  a  long  time  bore  the  name  of  ''Calvin's  Cave." 

Near  the  end  of  the  year  1534  he  risked  a  visit 
to  Paris.  There  a  Spanish  physician,  named  Ser- 
vetus,  crossed  his  path,  having  but  recently  pub- 
lished a  book,  ''On  the  Errors  of  the  Trinity."  He 
challenged  Calvin  to  a  public  disputation.  The 
challenge  was  accepted,  but  the  debate  never  came 
off.  Servetus  failed  at  the  last  to  put  in  an  appear- 
ance. Twenty  years  later  Calvin  reminded  him 
of  his  failure:  "You  know  that  at  that  time  I  was 
ready  to  do  everything  for  you,  and  did  not  even 
count  my  life  too  dear  that  I  might  convert  you 
from  your  errors."  What  a  blot  would  have  been 
removed  from  Calvin's  fame  if  he  had  done  so. 
Better  still,  if  he  had  never  met  the  Spaniard. 

Did  he  meet  Rabelais  in  the  province  of  Sain- 
tonge?     What    an    interesting   bit    of   biography 


46  John  Calvin:  The:  Statesman. 

would  be  any  portion  of  a  conversation  between 
the  champion  theologian  and  the  first  humorist  of 
France,  It  is  certain  that  Calvin  denounced,  in 
1533,  "Pantagruel"  as  an  ''obscene  book."  Nor  did 
Rabelais  spare  Calvin  in  the  third  book  of  "Panta- 
gruel,"  and  we  know  what  he  thought  of  the 
"demoniac  of  Geneva"  at  a  still  later  day  in  Cal- 
vin's history.  There  could  be  only  mutual  distaste 
and  disgust  in  any  meeting  between  these  two  rep- 
resentatives of  the  serious  and  the  jovial  side  of 
life. 

On  the  increase  of  persecution  Calvin  takes  the 
road  into  uncertain  exile.  Under  the  name  of 
Martianus  Lucanius  he  reaches  Basel,  carrying 
with  him  the  outlines  of  his  immortal  work.  There 
he  remained  from  January,  1535,  to  March,  1536. 
In  this  safe  resting  place  he  spent  the  time  to  high 
profit  with  scholars.  Erasmus,  while  in  residence 
in  Basel  from  15 14  to  1529,  had  issued  his  New 
Testament  and  his  editions  of  the  Latin  Fathers, 
and  there  he  died  in  July,  1536.  The  incident  of 
his  meeting  Calvin,  and  the  story  told  of  the  re- 
mark of  the  older  scholar,  that  he  saw  "a  great 
pestilence  arising  in  the  Church  against  the 
Church,"  is  soundly  doubted  by  Schaff,  though  it 
is  told  with  embellishments  by  Merle  d'Aubigne, 
as  if  he  had  been  an  interested  looker-on  during  the 
interview.  The  man  whose  piety  and  learning  had 
effectually  changed  Basel  to  the  Protestant  religion, 
Oecolampadius,  had  died  three  years  prior  to  the 


Wanderings.  47 

arrival  of  Calvin,  but  others  of  like  character  were 
on  the  ground,  who  gave  to  the  Frenchman  good 
welcome.  Myconius  was  chief  pastor,  and  Simon 
Gryn^eus  was  a  scholarly  Grecian,  with  whom  Cal- 
vin learned  to  appreciate  the  best  methods,  as  he 
himself  tells  us,  of  studying  and  explaining  the 
Scriptures.  Sebastian  Munster  was  to  him  a  mas- 
ter in  Hebrew,  "at  whose  feet  he  could  sit  without 
shame."  Thomas  Platter  was  a  vagrant  scholar 
and  printer,  from  whose  press  Calvin's  great  book 
came  all  too  slowly  to  satisfy  the  impatience  of  the 
strenuous  author.  All  in  all,  Basel  was  a  happy 
spot  for  recruiting  energies  and  giving  free  ex- 
pression to  opinion.  There  in  a  delightful  environ- 
ment he  prepared  himself  for  heavier  tasks  soon  to 
fall  to  his  lot. 

The  year  of  the  "Placards"  is  correctly  noted 
as  a  turning  point  in  the  history  of  French  Prot- 
estantism. The  king  had  now  become  flint,  and 
his  courtiers  fury,  to  say  nothing  of  the  priesthood. 
The  dreadful  tidings  of  their  wrath  against  the 
accused  friends  of  Protestantism  flew  over  Europe, 
and  aroused  the  Protestant  princes  of  Germany  to 
remonstrate  with  Francis.  He  excused  himself  by 
saying,  "He  had  been  constrained  to  use  this  rigor 
against  certain  rebels  who  wished  to  trouble  the 
State  under  the  pretext  of  religion."  This  excuse 
evoked  a  remarkable  reply.  In  August,  1535,  a 
small  volume  fell  from  the  press  at  Basel  bearing 
no  name  of  its  author.     It  was  dedicated  in  frank 


48  John  Calvin:  Th^  State:sman 

and  noble  style  to  the  French  king.  "This,"  said 
the  author  afterwards,  "was  what  led  me  to  pub- 
lish it :  first,  to  relieve  my  brethren  from  an  unjust 
accusation,  and  then  as  the  same  sufferings  still 
hung  over  the  heads  of  many  poor  faithful  men  in 
France,  that  foreign  nations  might  be  touched  with 
commiseration  for  their  woes,  and  might  open  to 
them  a  shelter."  "If  the  act,"  says  Michelet,  "was 
bold,  no  less  so  was  the  style.  The  new  French 
language  was  then  an  unknown  tongue.  Yet  here, 
twenty  years  after  Comines,  thirty  years  before 
Montaigne,  we  have  already  the  language  of  Rous- 
seau, his  power  if  not  his  charm.  But  the  most 
formidable  attribute  of  the  volume  is  its  penetrat- 
ing clearness,  its  brilliance  of  steel  rather  than  of 
silver;  a  blade  which  shines,  but  cuts.  One  sees 
that  the  light  comes  from  within,  from  the  depth 
of  the  conscience,  from  a  spirit  rigorously  con- 
vinced, of  which  logic  is  the  food.  One  feels  that 
the  author  gives  nothing  to  appearances,  that  he 
labors  to  find  a  solid  argument  upon  which  he  can 
live,  and  if  need  be,  die." 

In  such  terms  is  John  Calvin  introduced  to  us 
by  one  of  his  most  brilliant  countrymen,  as  the 
chief  thinker  of  the  age.  The  work  was  "Chris- 
tiance  Religionis  Institutio."  The  author  was 
twenty-five  years  of  age,  and  was  seeking  a  hiding 
place  for  the  further  pursuit  of  his  studies.  But 
no  man  who  wrote  as  he  did  could  remain  in  hiding. 
The  apologist  of  martyrs,  the  thinker  of  the  new 


Wande:rings.  49 

faith,  the  legislator  of  the  Reformed  Church,  he 
went  to  the  front  of  all  leaders,  of  all  confidence, 
and  of  all  wonderful  service  in  the  wide  spreading 
array  of  the  nascent  powers  of  the  young  Church, 
just  now,  however,  in  danger  of  eclipse. 

Guizot  thinks  the  work  was  written  originally 
in  French,  when  published  at  Basel  in  1535  with- 
out the  author's  name.  But  Dr.  Schaff,  after  a  pro- 
longed analysis  of  the  contending  claims  of  the  two 
languages,  Latin  and  French,  avers,  ''The  question 
of  the  priority  of  the  Latin  or  French  text  is  now 
settled  in  favor  of  the  former,"  and  quotes  Calvin's 
statement  in  his  preface  to  the  French  edition  of 
1 541,  that  he  first  wrote  the  Institutes  in  Latin  for 
readers  of  all  nations,  and  then  reproduced  them 
in  French  for  the  sake  of  his  countrymen.  The 
dedicatory  preface  is  dated  August  23d,  without 
the  year;  but  at  the  close  of  the  book  the  month 
of  March,  1536,  is  given  as  the  date  of  publication. 
The  first  French  edition,  1541,  supplements  the 
date  of  the  Preface  correctly  (August  2^,  1535)- 
The  manuscript  then  was  completed  in  1535,  but 
it  took  nearly  a  year  to  print  the  book.  The  error 
arises  from  confounding  the  date  of  the  Preface, 
as  given  in  the  French  editions  (23  August,  1535), 
with  the  latter  date  of  issue  (March,  1536). 

Francis  I,  like  Richelieu  in  the  next  century, 
courted  friendship  with  Protestant  princes  in  Ger- 
many, and  even  with  the  Turks,  while  in  bitter 
conflict  with  the  Emperor  and  other  Catholic 
4 


50  John  Calvin:  Th^  Statesman. 

powers.  Knowing  the  detestation  with  which  his 
ill-treatment  of  his  own  Protestant  subjects  was 
regarded  across  the  Rhine,  he  endeavored  to  excuse 
himself  on  the  ground  that  he  had  sent  none  to 
death,  except  a  few  fanatics  who  were  spreading 
abroad  their  contempt  for  rulers,  and  by  their  prac- 
tices tending  to  subvert  good  order  in  the  kingdom. 
It  was  to  silence  such  calumnies  as  these  that  Cal- 
vin published  his  apology  for  his  suffering  coun- 
trymen. 

The  Dedication  of  the  work  is  a  masterpiece. 
Its  style  is  pure  and  bold.  A  nervous  energy  char- 
acterizes its  respectful  appeal  to  the  Caesar  of  the 
day.  It  fills  eighteen  pages,  and  ranks  with  a  small 
handful  of  the  greatest  literary  productions  of  the 
kind  in  history. 

The  noble  defense  reaches  its  close  with  these 
words :  "But  I  return  to  you,  Sire.  ...  I  fear 
I  have  gone  too  much  into  the  detail,  as  this  preface 
already  approaches  the  size  of  a  full  apology, 
whereas  I  intended  it  not  to  contain  our  defense, 
but  only  to  prepare  your  mind  to  attend  to  the 
pleading  of  our  cause;  for  though  you  are  now 
averse  and  alienated  from  us,  and  even  inflamed 
against  us,  we  despair  not  of  regaining  your  favor, 
if  you  will  only  read  with  calmness  and  composure 
this  our  Confession,  which  we  intend  as  our  defense 
before  your  Majesty.  But,  on  the  contrary,  if  your 
ears  are  so  preoccupied  with  the  whispers  of  the 
malevolent,  as  to  leave  no  opportunity  for  the  ac- 


Bi 


Wanderings.  51 

cused  to  speak  for  themselves,  and  if  those  outra- 
geous furies,  with  your  connivance,  continue  to  per- 
secute with  imprisonments,  scourges,  tortures,  con- 
fiscations, and  flames,  we  shall  indeed,  like  sheep 
destined  to  the  slaughter,  be  reduced  to  the  great- 
est extremities.  Yet  we  shall  in  patience  possess 
our  souls  and  wait  for  the  mighty  hand  of  the  Lord, 
which  undoubtedly  will  in  time  appear,  and  show 
armed  for  the  deliverance  of  the  poor  from  their 
afflictions,  and  for  the  punishment  of  their  de- 
spisers  who  now  exult  in  such  perfect  security. 
.  .  .  May  the  Lord,  the  King  of  kings,  estab- 
lish your  throne  in  righteousness,  and  your  king- 
dom with  equity !" 

Protestants  and  Catholics  have  joined  in  praise 
of  this  monumental  production.  Says  Van  Ooster- 
see,  the  eminent  Dutch  scholar:  "No  dry  analysis 
is  able  to  give  a  worthy  idea  of  this  book,  now 
much  more  praised  than  read.  Prefaced  by  the 
renowned  letter  of  apology  to  Francis  I,  a  vestibule 
worthy  of  its  stately  edifice,  it  points  to  the  knowl- 
edge of  God  as  the  key  to  the  sanctuary  of  eternal 
truth.  While  strictly  systematic  in  its  plan,  it  is 
thoroughly  practical  in  spirit,  the  expression  of  the 
author's  personal  belief,  and  entirely  founded  on 
Holy  Scripture,  explained  most  strikingly  by  the 
exegete  Calvin."  Even  Audin,  the  Romanist  de- 
famer  of  Calvin,  whose  willingness  to  believe  all  ill 
of  him  is  most  startling  in  the  face  of  overwhelm- 
ing proof  to  the  contrary,  has  this  to  say  of  the 


52  John  Cai^vin:  The  Statesman. 

Preface  to  the  Institutes:  "The  dedication  is  one  of 
the  first  monuments  of  the  French  language;  it 
wants  neither  boldness  nor  eloquence."  When  it 
appeared,  the  literati  declared  that  "it  was  a  dis- 
course worthy  of  a  great  king,  a  portico  worthy 
of  a  superb  edifice,  a  composition  which  might  be 
ranked  by  the  side  of  De  Thou's  introduction  to 
his  Universal  History,  or  with  that  of  Casaubon 
to  his  Polybius."  F.  W.  Kampschulte,  the  fairest 
of  Roman  Catholic  biographers  of  Calvin,  calls  him 
"the  Aristotle ;"  Martin,  a  liberal  French  historian, 
calls  him  with  more  fitness,  "the  Thomas  Aquinas" 
of  Protestantism.  Guizot,  the  Protestant  authority, 
says:  "In  spite  of  its  imperfections,  it  is  on  the 
whole  one  of  the  noblest  edifices  ever  erected  by  the 
mind  of  man,  and  one  of  the  mightiest  codes  of 
moral  law  which  has  ever  guided  him."^ 

The  Institutes  were  not  written  in  popular  style 
for  the  masses,  and  did  not  appeal  to  them  with  the 
same  warmth  and  homeliness  as  did  Luther's  tract 
of  "Christian  Freedom."  Written  for  scholars,  it 
was  handed  by  them  to  the  plainer  folk  of  the  Re- 
formed Church.  On  the  scent  for  heresy,  the  Sar- 
bonne  discovered  the  character  of  the  work,  and 
ordered  it  to  be  burned ;  but  fortunately  the  print- 
ing-press is  as  constructive  as  fire  is  destructive, 
and  the  book  went  over  Europe  in  short  time. 

It  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  Calvin  produced 
a  finished  treatise  upon  theology  in  1535.  It  is 
equally  erroneous  to  believe  that  he  changed  his 

1  St.  lyouis  and  Calvin,  i8i. 


Wanderings.  53 

views  from  that  time  until  his  death.  At  the  same 
time  we  can  well  accept  the  idea  that  his  mind  grew 
in  its  range  and  balance  of  powers,  and  that  his  ad- 
ditions to  the  skeleton  of  1535  were  both  in  agree- 
ment with  it  and  at  the  same  time  an  amplification 
of  its  foundation  statements.  Calvin  was  wonder- 
fully precocious,  and  yet  he  must  have  grown  in 
every  way  after  the  first  venture,  for  the  breadth 
of  his  vision  and  swing  of  his  argument  gained  with 
the  passing  years.  In  the  first  edition  he  put  forth 
a  manual  with  six  chapters,  upon:  (i)  the  Deca- 
logue; (2)  the  Apostles'  Creed;  (3)  the  Lord's 
Prayer;  (4)  Baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper;  (5) 
the  other  so-called  Sacraments ;  (6)  Christian  Lib- 
erty, Church  Government,  and  Discipline.  The  sec- 
ond edition  has  seventeen,  the  third  twenty-one 
chapters.  In  the  author's  edition  of  1559  it  grew 
to  five  times  ijts  original  size.  Though  the  view 
point  is  the  same,  the  elaboration  is  that  of  a  master 
to  whom  the  years  brought  their  richest  stores. 
According  to  Schaff,  Calvin's  doctrine  is  stated  in 
more  simple  and  less  objectionable  form.  ''He 
dwells  on  the  comforting  side  of  the  doctrine, 
namely,  the  eternal  election  by  the  free  grace  of 
God  in  Christ,  and  leaves  out  the  dark  mystery  of 
reprobation  and  preterition."^  Yet  as  we  shall  see 
in  the  case  of  Servetus,  Calvin  had  grown  harder 
in  his  theory  of  the  way  in  which  such  pests  should 
be  disposed  of,  and  this  appears  in  his  Institutes. 
Calvin  was  not  satisfied  with  his  first  efforts, 


Schaff.    Reformation  in  Switzerland.    334. 


54  John  Cai^vin:  The:  Statesman. 

and  did  not  rest  until  he  had  retouched  his  book 
many  times.  In  the  preface  to  the  last  edition, 
five  years  before  his  death,  he  says:  "In  the  first 
edition  of  this  work,  not  expecting  that  success 
which  the  Lord,  in  His  infinite  goodness  hath  given 
me,  I  handled  the  subject  for  the  most  part  in  a 
superficial  manner,  as  is  usual  in  small  treatises. 
But  when  I  understood  that  it  had  obtained  from 
almost  all  pious  persons  such  a  favorable  accept- 
ance as  I  never  could  have  presumed  to  wish,  much 
less  to  hope,  while  I  was  conscious  of  receiving  far 
more  attention  than  I  had  deserved,  I  thought  it 
would  evince  great  ingratitude  if  I  did  not  en- 
deavor at  least,  according  to  my  humble  ability, 
to  make  some  suitable  return  for  the  attentions 
paid  to  me — attentions  of  themselves  calculated  to 
stimulate  my  industry.  Nor  did  I  attempt  this  only 
in  the  second  edition,  but  in  every  succeeding  one 
the  work  has  been  improved  in  some  farther  en- 
largements. But  though  I  repented  not  the  labor 
then  devoted  to  it,  yet  I  never  satisfied  myself  till 
it  was  arranged  in  the  order  in  which  it  is  now 
published.  ...  I  would  rather  it  had  been 
done  sooner,  but  it  is  soon  enough,  if  well  enough. 
I  shall  think  it  has  appeared  at  the  proper  time, 
when  I  shall  find  it  to  have  been  more  beneficial 
than  before  to  the  Church  of  God.  This  is  my  only 
wish." 

First  edition  or  last,  it  was  sufficient  to  put  Cal- 
vin, at  twenty-five  as  well  as  at  fifty  years  of  age, 
in  the  front  of  the  thinkers  of  the  world. 


Wande;rings.  55 

But  Calvin  was  not  only  a  writer.  He  was  a 
preacher,  an  evangelist,  and  soon  after  the  publi- 
cation of  the  Institutes,  or  possibly  before  the 
printer  had  them  ready  for  distribution,  Calvin 
crossed  Northern  France  to  Italy,  and  there  spent 
a  few  months  at  the  brilliant  court  of  the  Duchess 
Renee.  He  had  appealed  to  the  King  of  France 
in  a  splendid  Apology.  He  now  sought  the  kins- 
woman of  the  monarch  to  secure  from  her,  by  per- 
sonal solicitation,  aid  for  his  distressed  countrymen, 
and  also  to  strengthen  her  in  the  faith.  He  was 
destined  to  become  her  monitor  after  a  lofty  and 
judicious  manner. 

In  a  small  upper  salon  of  the  palace  of  Ver- 
sailles hangs  a  portrait  of  Renee,  Duchess  of  Fer- 
rara.  Near  by  are  Charles  V,  Christopher  Colum- 
bus, Francis  I,  Rabelais,  and  Mary  of  England.  A 
remarkable  collection  of  worthies  is  this.  The  fea- 
tures of  the  Duchess  are  plain,  their  expression 
grave,  the  auburn  hair  stiffly  curled,  the  high  ruff 
and  collar  hinting  the  misshapen  shoulder.  The 
deep-set  eyes  tell  of  many  trials.  The  mingled 
courage  and  kindness  in  the  lines  of  the  mouth  re- 
veal the  character  of  the  protector  and  friend  of  the 
Protestants.  Even  in  her  infancy  she  showed  the 
family  spirit— 7/;z  esprit  tout  de  feu,  one  all  of  fire. 
Her  grandfather  was  at  Agincourt,  and  when  the 
day  was  lost  had  tried  in  vain  to  rally  the  French 
against  the  fierce  plunges  of  the  English.  Her 
father  was  Louis  XII  of  France,  her  mother  a 
woman  of  high  character,  her  governess,  Madame 


56  John  Cai^vin:  The:  State:sman. 

de  Soubise,  a  member  of  a  family  afterward  re- 
nowned for  its  sufferings  in  the  cause  of  Protest- 
antism. Her  marriage  with  the  Duke  of  Ferrara 
gave  her  a  home  in  what  was  called  "a  miniature 
Florence."  Enthusiasm  is  too  tame  a  word  with 
which  to  describe  the  new  spirit  of  inquiry  which 
was  abroad  in  Italy.  Upon  her  arrival  in  Ferrara, 
1529,  the  Duchess  chose  for  her  private  secretary 
Bernardo  Tasso,  father  of  Torquato  Tasso,  the 
poet.  Artists,  poets,  philosophers,  were  always  wel- 
come at  the  palace.  In  1535  two  men  reached  Fer- 
rara with  letters  of  introduction  from  Queen  Mar- 
garet of  Navarre,  the  one  John  Calvin,  the  other 
his  friend  du  Tillet.  Calvin  came  under  an  assumed 
name,  "Charles  Espeville."  This  was  all  but  uni- 
versal when  men  had  missions  of  private  character, 
yet  he  seems  not  to  have  been  disguised  as  to  his 
true  personality  during  his  stay  at  the  court,  at 
least  to  the  inner  circle. 

Calvin  became  the  spiritual  adviser  of  the  Duch- 
ess for  the  rest  of  his  life.  A  free  correspondence 
of  a  singularly  noble  kind  was  kept  up  for  many 
years.  His  last  letter  to  her  was  written  just 
twenty-three  days  before  his  death.  Her  court 
became  a  place  of  refuge,  and  to  it  fled  Clement 
Marot,  the  Protestant  poet.  Marot  became  the 
private  secretary  of  the  Duchess,  and  at  her  sug- 
gestion he  began  his  well  known  work  of  trans- 
lating the  Psalms  into  French.  Their  popularity 
was  great  in  the  highest  as  well  as  in  the  lowest 
circles  of  France.     Francis  I  himself  set  the  One 


Wande:rings.  57 

Hundred  and  Twenty-eighth  Psalm  to  music,  and 
yet  a  bit  later  it  was  made  heresy  to  sing  this  col- 
lection when  they  had  become  a  part  of  the  simple 
liturgy  of  the  Church  at  Geneva. 

In  time  the  husband's  displeasure  fell  upon  the 
Duchess,  and  at  his  charge  of  heresy  her  Protestant 
attendants  were  removed,  and  their  places  taken  by 
Italians,  at  which  Rabelais,  writing  from  Italy, 
said,  "It  does  n't  look  well."  Her  husband's  con- 
fessor said :  "She  remained  obstinately  fixed  in  her 
heretical  opinions."  After  a  period  of  humiliation 
in  which  the  Inquisition  was  invited  to  examine 
her,  she  regained  her  freedom.  Upon  the  death  of 
her  husband  she  left  Ferrara,  rather  than  change 
her  religion.  Calvin  wrote  to  dissuade  her  from 
going  to  the  court  of  France,  but  was  unable  to 
move  her.  She  did  not  lack  courage,  and  faced 
the  evils  and  perils  of  her  grandfather's  court  with 
fixed  will.  At  the  time  of  the  arrest  of  the  Prince 
of  Conde  by  the  Guises,  her  voice  alone  rang  with 
indignation.  She  said  to  her  son-in-law,  a  Guise, 
"Have  a  care.  Monsieur;  this  is  a  wound  that  will 
bleed  long!" 

Naturally  the  severity  of  the  Duke  d'Este 
towards  the  Protestants  rendered  it  impossible  for 
Calvin  to  long  remain  at  the  castle.  But  before 
he  left  Ferrara  he  greatly  fortified  the  faith  of  those 
who  were  sick  of  Romanism.  Without  any  idea 
of  his  future  residence  he  left  for  the  North,  headed 
it  is  thought  for  some  spot  in  Germany,  where 
he  could  retire  to  a  quiet  study  and  think  and  write 


58  John  Cai^vin:  The:  Statesman. 

for  the  Reformers'  cause.  Beyond  this  he  seems 
not  to  have  had  a  thought.  His  experiences  as  he 
wandered  from  place  to  place  in  Piedmont  re- 
flected the  friendly  or  the  inimical  spirit  which  his 
presence  aroused.  He  remained  in  Piedmont  sev- 
eral weeks  in  the  neighborhood  of  Aosta,  at  the 
home  of  a  family  of  rank,  but  at  the  spread  of  the 
alarm  and  orders  to  arrest  Calvin  "and  all  others 
of  his  party,"  he  started  over  the  mountains.  It 
was  with  difficulty  that  he  escaped  through  peril- 
ous Alpine  passes,  wherein  he  was,  according  to  an 
ancient  tradition,  pursued  by  the  Marshal  d'Aosta 
to  the  very  foot  of  the  mountains  with  a  drawn 
sword  in  his  hand.  The  tradition  may  have  slender 
foundation.  But  that  Calvin's  flight  was  regarded 
as  a  memorable  event  is  certified  by  a  Cross  in 
Aosta.  In  1541  a  fountain  topped  by  a  cross  was 
erected  in  the  main  street  at  the  market-place  of 
Aosta,  and  the  following  inscription  may  be  read 
to-day  by  the  traveler: 

Hanc 

Calvini  Fuga 

ErExit  Anno  MDXLI. 

reugionis  constantia  reparavit 

Anno  MDCCXU. 

CiVIUM   PlETAS 

Renovavit  kt  adornavit 
Anno  MDCCCXLL 

"This  Cross,  erected  in  1541,  in  memory  of  Calvin's 
flight,  restored  in  1741  by  faithful  believers,  was  renewed 
and  ornamented  in  184 1  by  the  piety  of  the  Citizens." 


Wanderings.  59 

Seldom  thus  do  "the  faithful"  celebrate  their 
deliverance  from  a  foe  so  dangerous  to  the  sta- 
bility of  the  ancient  order.  Calvin's  presence,  even 
at  that  young  age,  and  without  the  great  fame  that 
came  later  on  in  his  life,  gave  them  concern.  The 
Cross  in  the  market-place,  on  which  they  chiseled 
their  own  gratitude  over  the  expulsion  of  the  plague 
of  their  homes,  has  also  preserved  the  name  and 
suggested  the  might  of  an  exile  who  was  surpassed 
in  fame  by  only  one  other  exile  of  Italy — the  sad- 
browed  Florentine,  Dante. 

Calvin  had  been  thrust  out  of  Italy,  never  to 
return.  He  could  get  no  welcome  among  his  own 
race,  the  Latin,  and  in  his  quandary  bent  his  steps 
towards  Basel  or  Strassburg.  But  overcome  by 
some  impulse  now  unknown,  he  visited  for  the  last 
time  his  boyhood  home,  and  by  his  preaching  influ- 
enced several  of  his  kinsmen  to  accept  the  new  re- 
ligion. Among  others  were  his  sister  Marie  and 
his  only  remaining  brother,  Antoine.  In  company 
with  them  he  set  out  for  Basel,  but  as  hostilities 
had  freshly  broken  out  between  Francis  I  and 
Charles  V  he  avoided  Lorraine,  the  seat  of  war, 
and  journeyed  on  by  way  of  Geneva.  He  intended 
to  remain  in  the  city  only  over  night.  But  his 
destiny  was  linked  to  that  of  the  city  in  a  way  he 
could  not  foresee.  Neither  the  stranger  alighting 
in  front  of  the  tavern  for  a  night's  lodging,  nor  the 
little  city,  glowing  with  pride  over  its  lately  won 
independence,  could  hope  to  understand  each  other 


6o 


John  Cai^vin:  The  Statesman. 


/^for  some  time.  *'The  Pearl  of  the  Alps"  had  for 
\  coat-of-arms  a  shield  parted  per  pale,  with  a  key  on 
one  side  and  half  an  eagle  on  the  other.  The 
people  in  jest  declared  it  represented  half  a  turkey 
and  a  key  to  the  wine  cellar.  True  or  not,  this  was 
not  altogether  foreign  to  the  general  reputation  of 
the  city. 

A  generation  passed  by,  and  the  city  discovered 
that  the  man  had  come  to  unlock  a  new  future,  in 
which  keys  to  wine  cellars  were  to  have  little  part. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

GENEVA  BEFORE  CALVIN. 

Ge^nE^va  was  the  last  of  the  Subalpine  cities  to 
revolt  from  Rome,  yet  it  came  to  be  the  symbol 
and  center  of  the  sternest  and  most  impregnable 
opposition  to  the  old  faith.  It  ultimately  absorbed, 
perpetuated,  and  glorified  the  life  of  the  exile  of 
Noyon.  To  no  other  city  of  Europe  could  Calvin 
have  gone  for  such  a  favorable  vantage  ground 
of  defense  of  his  reform  as  this  independent  little 
metropolitan  city  offered  to  him.  Though  it  re- 
fused all  at  once  to  do  his  bidding,  later  on  it  fully 
incorporated  his  spirit.  There  was  nothing  slug- 
gish about  the  life  of  Geneva,  nothing  wooden, 
nothing  inanimate.  As  late  as  July,  1880,  the  sensi- 
tive Amiel  could  truly  say  in  his  Journal  Intime: 
"Geneva  is  a  cauldron  always  at  the  boiling  point, 
a  furnace  of  which  the  fires  are  never  extinguished. 
Vulcan  had  more  than  one  forge,  and  Geneva  is 
certainly  one  of  those  world-anvils  on  which  the 
greatest  number  of  projects  have  been  hammered 
out.  When  one  thinks  that  the  martyrs  of  all 
causes  have  been  at  work  here,  the  mystery  is  ex- 
plained a  little;  but  the  truest  explanation  is  that 
61 


62  John  CaIvVin:  The:  Statesman. 

Geneva — republican,  Protestant,  learned,  and  enter- 
prising Geneva — has  for  centuries  depended  upon 
herself  for  the  solution  of  her  own  difficulties. 
Since  the  Reformation  she  has  always  been  on  the 
alert,  marching  with  a  lantern  in  her  left  hand  and 
a  sword  in  her  right."^  'Xantern  and  Sword" 
from  the  days  of  Calvin,  and  even  from  earlier 
days,  but  from  him  indubitably  the  lantern  got  a 
brighter  radiance  and  the  sword  a  keener  edge, 
which  shone  and  cut  to  the  dismay  of  the  enemies 
of  the  great  little  city  and  of  its  new  faith. 

Before  the  thirteenth  century  ushered  in  upon 
Europe  its  new  life,  the  counts  and  the  bishops  of 
Geneva  had  struggled  for  temporal  control,  with 
the  victory  going  to  the  ecclesistical  lords,  but  with 
the  new  age  there  came  a  new  force  to  which  ap- 
peal was  made  by  the  Genevan  bishops  for  aid 
against  their  rivals.  The  House  of  Savoy  proved 
too  strong  for  the  bishops  whom  it  aided,  and  in 
the  end  dictated  the  appointment  of  the  episcopal 
deputy  for  temporal  administration,  or  vicedominus, 
a  post  which  the  Savoy  rulers  controlled  until  1528. 
Meanwhile  the  burghers  began  to  demand  recog- 
nition, and  by  1387  secured  the  right  of  gathering 
in  a  General  Assembly  to  choose  administrative  offi- 
cers. These  were  four  ''syndics,"  selected  annu- 
ally, and  a  treasurer  chosen  for  a  term  of  three 
years.  Out  of  this  there  quickly  developed  the 
'Xittle  Council,"  ultimately  of  twenty-five  members, 

1  Amiel's  Journal.    2,  301. 


Ge;ne;va  Before  Cai^vin.  63 

the  Inner  executive  body  of  the  Interests  of  the 
burghers.  A  second  Council,  soon  attaining  the 
number  of  sixty,  was  established  to  discuss  matters 
not  easily  debatable  In  the  General  Assembly. 

The  tendency  to  aristocratic  control  Is  evident 
in  the  fact  that  the  'Xlttle  Council,"  from  1459  on- 
ward, designated  the  membership  of  this  larger 
Council.  The  division  of  authority  between  the 
bishop,  the  vidomne,  and  the  citizens,  and  the  con- 
sequent struggles  for  authority  lasted  until  the 
third  decade  of  the  sixteenth  century.  But  during 
three  generations  before  Calvin's  arrival  aristo- 
cratic use  of  popular  power  was  a  well  established 
fact  In  Geneva.  The  times  when  the  little  city  was 
melting  its  bells  for  cannon  and  men  went  to 
church  and  worked  on  the  fortifications  with  arms 
in  their  hands.  In  the  struggles  with  the  bishop  and 
the  duke,  were  highly  favorable  for  the  develop- 
ment of  the  finest  mettle  for  self-government.  Up 
to  1533  the  conflict  was  almost  wholly  of  a  polit- 
ical type  against  the  bishop  and  the  duke  as  tem- 
poral rulers  hostile  to  the  chartered  rights  of  Ge- 
neva. But  with  the  Increasing  dependence  of  Ge- 
neva upon  Bern,  which  had  adopted  the  principles 
of  the  Reformation  in  1528,  and  with  the  desire 
for  reform  at  home  aroused  by  the  fiery  preaching 
of  Far  el,  who  had  entered  the  city  armed  with  a 
letter  from  Bern,  Geneva  declared  for  reform,  for 
resistance  to  papal  abuses,  and  In  favor  of  Bern 
and  the  'Word  of  God."     Yet  the  spirit  of  the 


64  John  Cai^vin  :  The  Statesman. 

authorities  in  granting  to  Farel  the  right  of  free 
preaching  was  not  that  of  thorough-going  reform- 
ers, rather  that  of  conservative  poHticians.  The 
magistrates  moved  slowly.  The  party  in  for  vigor- 
ous measures  grew  in  importance.  Formal  Prot- 
estantism was  not  declared  until  as  late  as  1535. 
The  two  Councils  which  had  assumed  the  lapsed 
civil  functions  of  the  bishop  and  the  Chapter  now 
began  to  widen  their  authority.  Under  pressure 
from  Farel  they  took  in  hand  the  introduction  of 
reform  into  the  outlying  villages.  This  expansion 
stirred  up  Bern  to  military  protest,  and  only  the 
stubborn  soul  of  the  little  commonwealth  enabled 
her  finally  to  achieve  independence,  both  of  enemies 
and  quasi  friends,  and  to  assert  herself  an  inde- 
pendent republic  with  nearly  thirty  dependent  vil- 
lages. 

Genuine  moral  reform  soon  walked  with  the 
political  change.  Fearless  preachers  like  Paul  Viret 
and  William  Farel  were  unconsciously  preparing 
the  way  for  the  more  commanding  work  of  John 
Calvin.  Farel  is  worth  no  small  space  in  our  story, 
for  though  he  pales  in  the  light  that  he  introduced 
into  Geneva,  the  vast  personality  of  Calvin,  he  yet 
did  a  work  and  lived  a  life  that  bound  him  with 
hooks  of  steel  to  the  greater  man  whom  he  in  splen- 
did self-abnegation  persuaded  to  stay   in  Geneva. 

William  Farel  was  born  at  Gap,  a  small  town 
in  the  hills  of  Dauphine,  where  the  Waldensian 
faith  had  once  widely  spread.     He  grew  up  an 


IffiHH 


G^N^VA  B^i^oRi:  Cai^vin.  65 

ardent  papist,  and  fully  believed  in  the  efficacy  of 
works,  pilgrimages,  and  relics.     Yet  his  thirst  for 
knowledge  took  him  to  Paris,  where  he  studied  the 
ancient  languages,  philosophy,  and  theology.     His 
principal  teacher  was  Jacques  Le  Fevre  d'  Etaples, 
the  pioneer  of  the   Reformation   in   France,     Le 
Fevre  said  to  him  in  1512:  ''My  son,  God  will  re- 
new the  world,  and  you  will  witness  it.''    This  was 
more  than  made  good  in  the  restless,  and  sometimes 
fierce,  and  nearly  always  successful  evangelism  of 
Farel.    His  radicalism  compelled  his  flight  to  Basel 
in  1523.    There,  and  in  the  neighborhood,  he  held 
public  disputations,  delivered  lectures,  and  preached 
sermons  of  such  power  that  Oecolampadius  wrote 
to  Luther  that  Farel  was  a  match  for  the  Sorbonne. 
To  Erasmus  he  was  a  disturber  of  the  peace,  and 
in  a  moment  of  distrust  the  Council  expelled  him 
from  the  city.    In  Bern  he  found  warmer  welcome, 
and  under  the  auspices  of  the  Reformed  Church  of 
that  commonwealth  he  labored  as  a  sort  of  mission- 
ary bishop   throughout  that   part  of   Switzerland, 
turning   every   stump   into   a  pulpit   and   mightily 
arousing  the  people  both  for  and  against  his  doc- 
trine.    He  justified  his  appointment,  for  the  little 
churches  he  planted  in  the  southwest  corner  of  the 
Canton  of  Bern  were  the  first  in  the  ranks  of  strictly 
French  Protestantism.     "With  a  daring  often  in- 
trusive, a  zeal  not  always  courteous,  and  a  rough 
poetry  in  his  utterances  he  traversed  the   whole 
country."     He  was  violent,  but  only  in  language, 
5 


66  John  CaivVin:  Th^  Statesman. 

and  amid  hisses,  shrieks,  and  flying  missiles  he 
would  silence  the  crowd  by  his  self-command,  and 
then  in  hig^  own  eloquent  style  he  would  persuade 
his  revilers  to  listen  to  his  message.  He  was  the 
Whitefield  of  his  day  in  Switzerland.  Perils  only 
increased  his  audacity.  He  made  the  cathedrals 
that  were  stained  with  his  blood  ring  with  the 
echoes  .of  his  penetrating  voice.  At  Neufchatel  he 
so  impressed  his  audience  with  the  truth  that  the 
citizens  shouted  for  reform,  and  cleansed  the  church 
of  all  papal  apparatus,  and  in  memory  of  the  event 
inscribed  upon  a  pillar  of  the  church :  "On  October 
23,  1530,  idolatry  was  overthrown  and  removed 
from  this  church  by  the  citizens."  This  city  be- 
came the  first  center  of  a  presbyterial  organization 
in  French  Switzerland. 

In  1531  Farel  wrote  to  Zwingli:  "I  learn  that 
Geneva  has  thoughts  of  accepting  Jesus  Christ." 
In  her  journal  of  1532  the  literary  nun,  Jeanne  de 
Jussie,  made  the  following  interesting  note:  ''A 
shabby  little  preacher,  one  Master  William,  of 
Dauphiny,  has  just  arrived  in  the  city."  Forthwith 
a  sensation  sprang  up,  for  Farel  made  indifference 
to  himself  and  his  message  impossible.  The  allied 
Cantons  under  the  guidance  of  Bern  backed  the 
evangelist,  and  Geneva  was  induced  to  give  the 
truth  a  free  hearing.  In  a  great  debate,  Peter 
Caroli,  a  doctor  of  the  Sorbonne,  was  defeated, 
and  the  people  began  to  yield  to  deeper  convictions 
of  the  saving  power  of  the  simple  Gospel.     Farel 


HHI 


G^ne;va  Be:i^ore  Cai^vin.  >      67 

urged  the  Council  to  make  the  estabHshment  of  the 
Reformation  a  thing  of  law.  An  edict  of  August 
27th  abolished  the  papal  system.  On  the  shield  of 
the  city  the  inscription,  "After  Darkness,  I  hope 
for  Light,"  was  changed  to  *Tost  Tenebras,  Lux." 
The  priests  and  nuns  gradually  took  their  depart- 
ure. The  sprightly  Jeanne  de  Jussie  tells  of  the 
going  to  Annecy:  "It  was  a  piteous  thing  to  see 
this  holy  company  in  such  a  plight,  so  overcome 
with  fatigue  and  grief  that  several  swooned  by  the 
way.  It  was  rainy  weather,  and  all  were  compelled 
to  walk  through  muddy  roads,  except  four  poor  in- 
valids who  were  in  a  carriage.  There  were  six 
poor  old  women  who  had  taken  their  vows  more 
than  sixteen  years  before.  Two  of  these  who  were 
past  sixty-six,  and  had  never  seen  anything  of  the 
world,  fainted  away  repeatedly.  They  could  not 
bear  the  wind ;  and  when  they  saw  the  cattle  in  the 
fields,  they  took  the  cows  for  bears,  and  the  long 
wooled  sheep  for  ravening  wolves."  It  took  the 
nuns  from  five  in  the  morning  till  near  midnight 
to  go  a  short  league  to  Annecy. 

The  conclusion  of  the  nun  who  writes  with  pic- 
ture-making fidelity  is  that  the  upheaval  was  a  just 
punishment  of  the  faithless  clergy,  who,  she  said, 
"squandered  dissolutely  the  ecclesiastical  property, 
keeping  women  in  adultery  and  lubricity,  and  awak- 
ening the  anger  of  God,  which  brought  divine  judg- 
ment upon  them."  History  has  no  disproof  of  the 
quickwitted  nun's  statement. 


68  John  Cai^vin:  Th^  Statesman. 

So  the  people  of  Geneva  changed  front.  Now, 
without  a  bishop  and  with  freedom  from  tyranny 
already  won,  they  were  their  own  masters.  Yet 
they  suffered  from  confusion.  That  they  did  not 
at  once  cut  loose  from  the  discipline  of  the  past  is 
evident  from  the  various  acts  by  which  the  Council 
strove  to  order  the  life  of  the  city.  For  under  the 
advice  of  Farel  and  from  their  sense  of  the  need 
of  preventing  social  and  moral  anarchy  they 
adopted  measures  to  promote  good  order,  after  a 
striking  fashion,  and  this  too  with  Calvin  nowhere 
in  sight.  For  they  put  the  whole  matter  of  regu- 
'  lating  the  moral  order  of  Geneva  to  a  popular  vote. 
The  crowd  may  not  have  known  just  what  they 
were  voting  for,  but  the  leaders  of  the  city  evi- 
dently did  not  care  to  take  so  important  a  step 
without  the  support  of  the  populace. 

On  Sunday,  May  21,  1536,  the  whole  body  of 
citizens  with  uplifted  hands  took  the  following  oath. 
After  the  first  syndic,  M.  Claude  Savoy,  had  pro- 
posed the  resolutions,  "without  any  dissenting  voice, 
it  was  generally  voted,  and  with  hands  raised  in 
air  resolved  and  promised  and  sworn  before  God, 
that  we  all  by  the  aid  of  God  desire  to  live  in  this 
holy  evangelical  law  and  Word  of  God,  as  it  has 
been  announced  to  us,  desiring  to  abandon  all 
masses,  images,  idols,  and  all  which  may  pertain 
thereto,  to  live  in  union  and  obedience  to  justice. 
.  .  .  Also  voted  to  try  to  secure  a  competent  man 
for  the  school,  with  sufficient  salary  to  enable  hini 


Ge:ne:va  B^^or^  CaIvVin.  69 

to  maintain  and  teach  the  poor  free ;  and  that  every 
one  be  bound"  to  send  his  children  to  the  school 
and  have  them  learn ;  and  all  the  pupils  and  teach- 
ers to  be  bound  to  go  into  residence  at  the  great 
school  where  the  Rector  and  his  Bachelors  shall 
be." 

The  vow  to  provide  free  education  and  to  re- 
quire all  to  get  schooling  is  as  typical  of  the  coming 
Puritan  State  as  the  vow  to  obey  God.  The  church 
and  the  school  got  together  early  in  the  history  of 
Puritanism. 

By  1536,  entirely  aside  from  any  dictation  of 
an  intruder,  as  the  Galiffes  have  been  wont  to  call 
Calvin,  the  Councils  had  assumed  the  entire  control 
of  morals  and  religion,  now  doing  with  a  free  hand 
what  they  had  formerly  shared  with  the  ecclesi- 
astical rulers.  February  28,  1536,  the  Two  Hun- 
dred issues  a  formal  proclamation  prohibiting  blas- 
phemy ;  profane  oaths ;  card  playing ;  protection  of 
adulterers,  thieves,  and  vagabonds ;  selling  bread  or 
wine  save  at  reasonable  established  prices ;  and  un- 
authorized holding  of  taverns.  There  was  to  be 
no  holiday  save  Sunday;  no  coming  of  brides  to 
weddings  with  head  uncovered;  no  baptizing  or 
marrying  by  private  persons;  no  hearing  mass 
within  or  without  the  city.  New  England  did  not 
invent  ''blue  laws;"  nor  did  Old  England;  nor  did 
John  Calvin.  ''They  were  rather  the  sequelae  of 
the  Middle  Ages.  They  are  the  attempts  of  the 
new  Protestant  State  to  take  over  the  personal  su- 


70  John  Calvin:  The:  Statesman. 

pervision  exercised  by  the  mediaeval  state  and 
guild." 

However  earnest  the  civil  power  was  to  organ- 
ize Genevan  society  after  the  expression  of  its  new 
convictions,  it  must  not  be  thought  that  the  actions 
above  narrated  righted  all  matters  at  once.  The 
citizenship  of  the  city  did  indeed  consider  itself 
sufficient  for  control  in  place  of  the  deposed  bishop, 
but  it  remained  for  Calvin  in  his  farewell  address 
to  say  of  the  state  at  his  coming:  "In  this  church 
there  was  well  nigh  nothing.  There  was  preaching, 
and  that  is  all.   .    .   .  All  was  in  confusion." 

The  usual  exaggeration  of  the  condition  of 
unchecked  anarchy  which  is  said  to  have  charac- 
terized Geneva  before  the  arrival  of  Calvin  will 
need  to  be  taken  with  serious  modification.  The 
Catholics  tell  it,  for  it  sullies  the  Reformation;  the 
hero-worshiper  of  Calvin  tells  it,  for  he  is  thus 
enabled  to  glorify  the  Reformer  who  came  in  the 
nick  of  time  to  prevent  a  collapse  of  the  cause  in 
jeopardy  of  its  own  freedom.  One  must  imagine  a 
city  in  which  there  was  not  a  little  discord  due  to 
the  shock  of  change,  the  flocking  in  of  political 
refugees,  the  unsettled  results  of  factional  conten- 
tions both  civil  and  religious,  the  inability  of  leaders 
like  the  impulsive  Farel  to  allay  strife  and  sup- 
plant it  with  settled  peace,  and  it  is  not  diffi- 
cult to  picture  a  situation  calling  loudly  for  the 
coming  and  supremacy  of  a  master  mind  and  will. 
And  yet  a  city  not  peculiarly  worse  than  other 


G^Ni;vA  Before  Cai^vin.  71 

cities,  not  more  lawless,  nor  more  helpless  to  ad- 
just its  life  in  harmony  with  the  new  life  and  light 
and  impulse  which  were  beginning  to  illuminate 
and  thrill  the  peoples  of  Western  Europe. 

Before  Calvin  came  there  was  intolerance.  The 
case  of  John  Balard  is  of  interest  and  not  without 
pathetic  character.  In  the  Register  of  the  City 
Council  we  have  the  following  entry  for  July  24, 
1536:  ^'John  Balard  was  interrogated  wherefore 
he  refused  to  hear  the  Word  of  God?  He  replied 
that  he  believed  in  God,  who  taught  him  by  His 
Spirit.  He  could  not  believe  our  preachers.  He 
said  that  we  could  not  compel  him  to  go  to  the 
sermon  against  his  conscience.  .  .  .  We  admon- 
ished him  that  he  should  within  three  days  obey 
the  proclamation  or  show  just  cause  why  he  should 
not.  He  replied:  'I  desire  to  Hve  according  to 
God's  Gospel,  but  I  do  not  wish  to  follow  it  accord- 
ing to  the  interpretation  of  any  private  persons,  but 
according  to  the  interpretation  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
through  the  Holy  Church  universal  in  which  I  be- 
lieve. Balard.'  "  This  his  creed,  written  in  his  own 
hand  on  a  scrap  of  paper  is  sewn  with  a  faded  red 
thread  to  the  records  of  that  day.  Though  Balard 
held  high  offices,  he  was  compelled  to  yield  to  the 
resistless  current  which  was  sweeping  Geneva 
away  from  its  ancient  moorings.  He  was  required 
to  give  "affirmative  or  negative  answer"  as  to  the 
mass,  and  wrote:  "The  mass  is  bad."  Balard  was 
a  traditionalist  it  may  be  imagined,  but  he  was  a 


72  John  Cai^vin:  Tut  Statesman. 

sane  official  of  repute,  who  was  compelled  to  sub- 
mit his  religious  scruples  to  his  political  necessi- 
ties. He  was  up  before  the  Council  on  several 
occasions,  significant  in  that  they  were  not  during 
the  time  of  Calvin's  presence  in  the  city,  for  the 
first  inquisition  was  dated  July,  1536,  before  Cal- 
vin's coming,  and  the  last  in  1539,  at  a  time  when 
Calvin  was  in  forced  exile  in  Strassburg.  Europe 
did  not  wait  to  herald  the  appearance  of  Calvin 
with  the  show  of  intolerance,  and  give  its  hateful 
and  bitter  spirit  the  various  exhibitions  which  array 
themselves  upon  the  pages  of  all  histories  of  those 
times,  but,  if  Catholic,  flung  itself  with  tremendous 
energy  into  the  business  of  suppressing  heresy  at 
all  hazards,  and  if  Protestant,  did  not  hesitate  to 
give  the  stranger  within  its  gates  of  orthodoxy 
a  most  chilling  welcome. 

It  must  not  be  concluded  that  though  the  peo- 
ple shook  oflf  the  yoke  of  lord  and  bishop, 
Geneva  at  this  early  date,  or  ever  during  Calvin's 
rule,  solved  the  question  of  representative  govern- 
ment. Slowly  she  made  her  way  into  the  light  of 
the  modern  world.  In  the  vital  changes  from  the 
old  to  the  new  faith  the  "Commune"  had  acted  in 
their  sovereign  capacity,  but  in  the  struggle  for 
independence  and  order  there  had  been  a  growing 
tendency  to  concentrate  power  in  the  hands  of  a 
few  men,  "conservative,  responsible,  and  experi- 
enced." This  was  adopted  by  Calvin  after  seven 
years'  testing,  and  by  John  Winthrop  in  Massa- 


Geneva  B^i^ore:  Cai^vin.  73 

chusetts  Bay,  a  hundred  years  later.  It  was  effi- 
cient, but  not  without  its  perils  to  liberty.  It  is 
true  that  the  mettlesome  spirit  of  the  people  saved 
Geneva  from  falling  into  the  grasp  of  despots,  and 
the  influence  of  the  preachers  was  not  inactive  in 
preventing  the  magistrates  from  absorbing  all  au- 
thority, and  it  was  not  until  after  both  Calvin  and 
Beza,  his  great  successor,  were  gone  that  the  aris- 
tocrats rose  superior  to  the  democrats,  and  devel- 
oped a  dangerous  social  and  political  supremacy. 
Long  before  the  French  Revolution,  there  were 
as  many  as  three  distinct  upheavals  in  Geneva,  in 
1707,  1735-38,  and  1782,  in  which  the  aristocracy 
suffered  assault. 

What  have  we  then  in  this  eventful  day? 
Before  Calvin  Geneva  had  not  adopted  democracy ; 
nor  freedom  of  conscience ;  nor  liberty  of  worship ; 
nor  personal  liberty;  she  had  legislated  upon 
matters  of  amusement,  commerce,  sermons,  holi- 
days, and  even  styles  in  hair-dressing.  The  Church 
had  less  right  of  initiative  in  the  first  days  of  the 
attempts  at  reform  under  Farel  than  under  Calvin, 
If  indeed  it  can  be  said  to  have  had  any  at  all.  "It 
had  no  rights  of  either  property,  discipline,  revis- 
ion of  membership,  or  choice  of  pastors."  ^ 

This  much  in  a  general  way  we  can  affirm; 
that  Geneva  was  ready  for  Calvin.  She  had  a 
pecuHar  temper  which  for  lack  of  a  better  word 


1  See  the  very  able  article  of  A.  D,  Foster  in  Amer.  Hist.  Rev. 
Jan.  1903. 


74  John  Cai^vin:  Th^  Statesman. 

may  be  called  "mentality,"  and  she  could  appreciate 
the  presence  of  a  master  mind.  Many  Protestant 
writers  have  overshot  the  mark  in  cataloguing 
her  vices  before  the  coming  of  Calvin,  for  no 
people  surrendered  to  immorality  could  have  devel- 
oped such  brilliant  wit  and  maintained  such  noble' 
defense  against  a  cordon  of  enemies.  The  Ge- 
nevans were  a  complex  people.  They  loved  pleas- 
ures, they  were  the  inheritors  of  the  feudal  noisi- 
ness and  much  given  to  turbulence.  Processions, 
games  and  dancing  were  to  their  taste.  Shrewd 
at  a  bargain  they  were  not  always  scrupulous ; 
self-assertive,  they  earned  their  independence. 
Thrifty,  they  gathered  fortunes.  Intelligent,  they 
welcomed  scholars.  Public-spirited,  loving  liberty, 
what  they  swore  to  support  they  died  for.  Near 
France,  they  were  something  else  than  French ; 
neighbors  to  Italy,  they  were  not  Italian ;  nor  were 
they  German  because  they  got  glimpses  of  the 
Rhine.  Full  of  contradictions,  they  were  full  of 
charm.  As  one  of  their  own  well  known  citizens, 
Bonivard,  the  "Prisoner  of  Chillon,"  said  in  his 
Chronicles:  "One  might  kill  them  rather  than  make 
them  consent  to  that  from  which  they  had  once 
dissented.  .  .  .  Otherwise  they  were  for  the  most 
part  thoughtless  and  devoted  to  their  pleasures; 
but  the  war,  necessarily,  the  reformation  of  relig- 
ion, voluntarily,  withdrew  them  therefrom."  So 
it  seems  that  what  Geneva  did  in  schooling  her- 
self to  lead  the  hosts  of  Puritanism  in  the  middle 


Ge:ne:va  Before  Cai^vin.  75 

of  the  sixteenth  century  she  did  of  her  own  accord, 
Bonivard  being  witness. 

Into  this  volatile,  sturdy,  pleasure-loving,  con- 
tentious, masterful,  loyal  community,  the  right  man 
came  at  the  right  time  to  put  the  impress  of  his 
imperial  genius  upon  its  plastic  life,  and  to  make 
the  impression  so  sure  that  some  centuries  passed 
by  before  the  outlines  of  the  image  were  seriously 
dulled,  and  so  vital  that  its  capacity  for  reproduc- 
tion in  other  and  distant  lands  has  become  the 
marvel  of  historians. 


CHAPTER  V. 
CALVIN'S  FIRST  SOJOURN  IN  GENEVA. 

Two  MONTHS  after  the  public  sanction  to  the 
Reformation  in  Geneva  (May  2ist),  Calvin  stepped 
from  a  carriage  of  slender  proportions  in  front  of 
a  tavern  in  the  city.  The  date  was  in  the  latter 
part  of  July,  not,  as  given  by  some,  in  August. 
His  desire  was  to  make  a  short  stay  in  the  city, 
and  to  proceed  on  his  journey  in  the  morning. 
Clad  in  simple  habit  he  appeared  the  scholar  that 
he  was,  a  thin,  abstemious,  bookish  man.  His 
countenance  was  pale,  and  according  to  one  writer, 
E.  Haag,  his  beard  was  cut  a  la  Frangois,  his  eye  a 
brilliant  black,  his  bearing  one  of  purpose. 

His  arrival  was  the  turning  point  of  his  life; 
its  effect  upon  Geneva  was  incalculable.  Of  it 
Montesquieu  says :  ''The  Genevese  ought  to  observe 
the  day  of  his  arrival  in  their  city  as  a  festival." 
The  zeal  of  his  friend  du  Tillet  made  known  to 
Farel  that  Calvin  was  in  the  city,  and  this  unselfish 
man  immediately  set  about  to  hold  him  for  the 
good  of  Geneva.  Farel  had  given  himself  to  the 
work  of  renovating  the  city,  but  had  reached  his 
limit  of  influence  after  the  primary  impulse  had 

76 


First  Sojourn  in  Geneva.  77 

been  expended,  and  the  author  of  the  Institutes  was 
to  the  fervent  soul  an  answer  of  God  to  his  prayer. 
Under  Calvin  there  might  be  secured  such  a  mo- 
mentum as  none  other  could  give.     Farel  brought 
all  his  energy  to  bear  upon  the  newcomer  to  gain 
his  consent  to  remain.     To  Calvin's  plea  that  he 
wished  to  study  in  Germany,  and  to  his  word  "I 
can  not  bind  myself  to  one  Church.     I  would  be 
useful  to  all,"  Farel  opposed  his  utmost  persua- 
sions. Calvin  pleaded  his  youth,  his  natural  timidity, 
and  his   inexperience   in   affairs   of  public   action. 
Farel  thundered  and  threatened,  and  overbore  Cal- 
vin's protests.     Long  time  after  Calvin  wrote :  ''I  n 
was  kept  in  Geneva,  not  properly  by  an  express    | 
exhortation  or  request,  but  rather  by  the  terrible   / 
threatenings  of  William  Farel,   which  were  as  if/ 
God    had    seized    me    by    His    awful    hand    from/ 
Heaven.     So  I  was  compelled  to  give  up  the  plan  \ 
of  my  journey,  but  yet  without  pledging  myself    j 
to   undertake  any   definite  office,   for   I  was  con-  / 
scious  of  my  timidity  and  weakness." 

Merle  d'Aubigne's  dramatic  account  of  the  in- 
terview must  be  taken  with  reserve,  as  some  of 
the  facts  he  narrates  have  no  origin  save  in  his 
imagination. 

Calvin  did  not  immediately  rush  to  prominence. 
Farel  was  for  awhile,  at  least,  in  the  popular  view, 
the  chief  minister  of  the  Protestant  movement  in 
Geneva.  And  yet  Farel  was  justified  in  his  expec- 
tation that  Calvin  would  prove  a  master  workman 


78  John  Calvin:  The:  State:sman. 

in  the  organization  of  the  Genevan  Church,  for  in 
the  speedy  preparation  of  the  Articles  deaHng  with 
Church  government,  of  the  Catechism,  and  of  the 
Confession  of  Faith,  of  which  last  Farel  was  the 
main  composer,  though  expressing  the  mind  of 
Calvin,  the  masterful  presence  of  the  newcomer 
was  evident.  First,  his  colleagues,  then  the  leaders 
of  government,  finally  the  mass  of  the  people  felt 
his  strong  hand  in  the  life  of  Geneva. 

It  was  not  until  February  13,  1537,  and  some 
time  after  an  earnest  appeal  on  the  part  of  Farel 
to  the  Little  Council  for  the  grant  of  an  adequate 
sum  for  Calvin's  support,  that  an  amount  was  or- 
dered, six  gold  crowns,  and  yet  so  unknown  was 
Calvin  to  the  clerk  that  in  the  entry  of  the  request 
for  the  grant  he  referred  to  Calvin  as  "Iste 
Gallus" — ''That  Frenchman."  The  solitary  exile, 
with  few  intimate  friends,  moneyless,  and  sure  of 
only  a  night's  lodging,  was  always  a  poor  man, 
but  by  sheer  force  of  will  and  unwonted  mental 
activity  and  a  profound  conviction  of  the  impera- 
tive need  of  reform,  he  did  finally  succeed  in 
becoming  the  leader  of  every  circle  in  which  he 
was  thrown.  We  say  advisedly,  not  at  first,  for 
too  many  conflicting  currents  of  opinion  and  prac- 
tice made  such  mastery  impossible  at  one  stroke. 
Calvin  failed  in  his  first  attempt  to  bed  the  princi- 
ples of  the  Reformation  in  the  hearts  and  con- 
sciences of  the  Genevese. 

Before  the  coming  of  Calvin  it  had  been  voted 


First  Sojourn  in  Gkn^va.  79 

by  the  Council,  May  24,  1536,  to  draft  Articles  to 
secure  the  "unity  of  the  State."  On  November 
loth,  following,  prompt  approval  was  given  to  a 
plan  submitted  by  Farel.^  January  16,  1537,  the 
records  of  the  Little  Council  show  that  Articles 
were  submitted  "given  by  MeG.  Farel  and  other 
preachers."  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  in 
these  not  only  the  mind  but  the  very  language  of 
Calvin  are  embodied,  for  thoughts  and  words  of 
the  Institutes  are  unmistakable. 

Calvin's  main  purpose  was  to  secure  a  relig- 
ious community.  For  fear  that  the  too  frequent 
celebration  of  the  Lord's  Supper  would  cheapen 
that  holy  rite,  he  recommended  its  observance  once 
a  month.  To  protect  this  sacred  ordinance  against 
>  all  mistreatment  he  urged  that  all  unworthy  cele- 
» brants  should  be  excluded.  Here  we  reach  the 
core  of  his  efforts  to  gain  his  ends — by  their  pro- 
vision to  enforce  church  discipline,  the  Articles  get 
their  significance.  The  proposition  to  establish  a 
censorship  of  morals  is  quite  evident  from  the 
following,  laid  by  the  ministers  before  the  Council ; 

"Our  Lord  established  communication  as  a  means  of 
correction  and  discipline,  by  which  those  who  led  a  dis- 
orderly life  unworthy  of  a  Christian,  and  who  despised 
to  mend  their  ways  and  to  return  to  the  strait  way  after 
they  had  been  admonished,  should  be  expelled  from  the 
body  of  the  Church  and  cut  off  as  rotten  members  until 
they    come    to   themselves    and    acknowledge    their    fault. 

1  Professor  W.  Walker  is  of  the  opinion  that  the  plan  of  Farel 
was  simply  of  anti-Roman  character.    John  Calvin,  p.  185. 


8o  John  Cai^vin:  Th^  State^sman. 

.  .  .  We  have  an  example  given  by  St.  Paul  (i  Tim.  i 
and  I  Cor.  v),  in  a  solemn  warning  that  we  should  not 
keep  company  with  one  who  is  called  a  Christian,  but  who 
is,  none  the  less,  a  fornicator,  covetous,  an  idolator,  a 
railer,  a  drunkard,  or  an  extortioner.  So  if  there  be  in 
us  any  fear  of  God,  this  ordinance  should  be  enforced  in 
our  Church. 

"To  accomplish  this  we  have  determined  to  petition 
you  (i.  e.,  the  town  council)  to  establish  and  choose,  ac- 
cording to  your  good  pleasure  certain  persons  (namely, 
the  elders)  of  upright  life  and  good  repute  among  all  the 
faithful,  likewise  constant  and  not  easy  to  corrupt,  who 
shall  be  assigned  and  distributed  in  all  parts  of  the  town 
and  have  an  eye  on  the  life  and  conduct  of  every  individ- 
ual. If  one  of  these  see  any  obvious  vice  which  is  to  be 
reprehended,  he  shall  bring  this  to  the  attention  of  some 
one  of  the  ministers,  who  shall  admonish  whoever  it  may 
be  who  is  at  fault,  and  exhort  him  in  a  brotherly  way  to 
correct  his  ways.  If  it  is  apparent  that  such  remonstrance 
do  no  good,  he  shall  be  warned  that  his  obstinacy  will  be 
reported  to  the  Church.  Then  if  he  repents,  there  is  in 
that  alone  excellent  fruit  of  this  form  of  discipline.  If  he 
will  not  listen  to  warnings,  it  shall  be  time  for  the  minister, 
being  informed  by  those  who  have  the  matter  in  charge, 
to  declare  publicly  in  the  congregation  the  efforts  which 
have  been  made  to  bring  the  sinner  to  amend,  and  how  all 
has  been  in  vain. 

"Should  it  appear  that  he  proposes  to  persevere  in  his 
hardness  of  heart,  it  shall  be  time  to  excommunicate  him; 
that  is  to  say,  that  the  offender  shall  be  regarded  as  cast 
out  from  the  companionship  of  Christians,  and  left  in  the 
power  of  the  devil  for  his  temporal  confusion,  until  he 
shall  give  proof  of  penitence  and  amendment.  In  sign  of 
'his  casting  out  he  shall  be  excluded  from  the  communion, 
and  the  faithful  shall  be  forbidden  to  hold  familiar  con- 
verse with  him.    Nevertheless  he  shall  not  omit  to  attend 


First  Sojourn  in  GiJn^va.  8i 

the  sermons  in  order  to  receive  instruction,  so  that  it  may 
be  seen  whether  it  shall  please  the  Lord  to  turn  his  heart 
to  the  right  way. 

"The  offenses  to  be  corrected  in  this  manner  are  those 
named  by  St.  Paul  above,  and  others  like  them.  When 
others  than  the  said  deputies — for  example,  neighbors  or 
relatives — shall  first  have  knowledge  of  such  offenses,  they 
may  make  the  necessary  remonstrances  themselves.  If 
they  accomplish  nothing,  then  they  shall  notify  the  deputies 
to  do  their  duty. 

"This,  then,  is  the  manner  in  which  it  would  seem 
expedient  to  us  to  introduce  excommunication  into  our 
Church  and  maintain  it  in  its  full  force;  for  beyond  this 
form  of  correction  the  Church  does  not  go.  But  should 
there  be  insolent  persons,  abandoned  to  all  perversity,  who 
only  laugh  when  they  are  excommunicated,  and  do  not 
mind  living  and  dying  in  that  condition  of  rejection,  it 
shall  be  your  affair  to  determine  whether  you  should  long 
suffer  such  contempt  and  mocking  of  God  to  pass  unpun- 
ished.   .    .    . 

"If  those  who  agree  with  us  in  faith  should  be  pun- 
ished by  excommunication  for  their  offenses,  how  much 
more  should  the  Church  refuse  to  tolerate  those  who  op- 
pose us  in  religion?  The  remedy  that  we  have  thought  of 
is  to  petition  you  to  require  all  the  inhabitants  of  your 
city  to  make  a  confession  and  give  account  of  their  faith, 
so  that  you  may  know  who  agree  with  the  gospel,  and 
who,  on  the  contrary,  would  prefer  the  kingdom  of  the 
pope  to  the  kingdom  of  Jesus  Christ." 

To  the  pleasure-loving  Genevese  this  was  a 
most  drastic  programme.  The  Protestantism  which 
was  confined  to  independence  of  the  control  of 
Rome,  and  even  the  establishment  of  a  new  doc- 
trinal basis  was  not  so  obnoxious  to  them,  but 
6 


82  John  Cai^vin:  Th^  Statesman. 

when  the  French  theologian,  with  his  exalted  and 
over-scrupulous  morality  proposed  to  become  a 
censor  of  morals  and  a  master  of  discipline,  they 
resented  his  intrusion.  Not  all,  indeed,  but  for  the 
time  the  "liberals"  held  the  upper  hand.  Calvin 
with  his  Confession,  his  Catechism,  and  his  Dis- 
cipline, was  too  sudden  an  incursion  into  the  field 
of  their  old  life  for  any  wise  man  to  hope  for  the 
immediate  triumph  of  the  new  reform.  Doubtless 
there  was  enough  vice  to  warrant  reasonable  vigor 
in  attempts  to  suppress  it,  and  no  one  can  fail  to 
commend  the  purity  of  the  motive  that  lay  back 
of  Calvin's  plan,  yet  no  one  will  deny  that  the 
methods  used  were  unwise.  When  in  1537  the 
four  newly -elected  syndics  upheld  the  ministers  in 
compelling  the  Council  and  all  the  citizens  to  swear 
to  the  Confession,  the  opposition  began  to  stir  its 
strength.  Many  people  refused  outright,  as  might 
have  been  expected,  to  support  the  new  regime. 

The  young  men  chafed,  the  liberal  patriots 
struggled  in  the  net,  the  French  refugees  upheld 
Calvin.  These  last  played  a  rather  conspicuous 
part  in  the  present  contention.  They  have  been 
the  subjects  of  malignant  opprobrium  on  the  part 
of  their  enemies,  who  have  counted  them  as  inter- 
lopers, and  held  worthy  of  eulogism  by  those  whose 
sympathies  have  been  on  the  side  of  exiles  in  search 
of  homes  and  good  order,  of  relief  from  persecu- 
tion, and  the  reformation  of  society.  The  facts 
§eem  to  be;  these  immigrants  had  been  the  vie- 


First  Sojourn  in  G£;n^va.  83 

tims,  and  those  following  them  from  France  were 
also  in  later  years,  of  merciless  treatment.  Some 
of  them  had  been  eminent  enough  to  attract  atten- 
tion to  their  "heresy."  They  bore  with  them  vis- 
ible evidences  of  their  ability  to  take  the  conse- 
quences of  their  adherence  to  the  new  faith.  They 
had  not  been  silenced  on  their  native  soil  by  fire, 
sword,  and  noose,  and  were  wont  to  express  them- 
selves as  to  their  doctrinal  position  wherever  their 
exile  bore  them.  Their  arrivals  in  Geneva  had 
not  been  unnoticed  before  the  coming  of  Calvin, 
and  they  were  numerous  enough  in  1536  to  excite 
the  jealousy  of  the  native  patriots.  A  crisis  was 
soon  reached,  not  on  the  merits  of  the  new  disci- 
pline, but  on  a  point  of  ceremony. 

It  was  a  blunder  to  decree  that  all  who  refused 
to  sign  the  Confession  should  take  their  departure 
from  the  city ;  to  employ  force  of  civil  law  to  purify 
the  church  by  punishing  vices  and  follies  was  not  a 
stroke  of  genius  in  statesmanship,  at  least  from 
the  modern  point  of  view.  Calvin  was  still  a  young 
man,  and  had  no  small  sense  of  the  worth  of  his 
own  views ;  he  had  been  urged  against  his  will 
to  stay  in  Geneva  to  lead  in  the  reform,  and,  true 
to  his  nature,  what  he  did  at  all  he  did  with  all 
his  might.  He  led  on  too  fast,  for  the  time.  His 
.aim  was  the  independent  self-government  of  the 
Church.  He  had  not  originated  the  regulation  of 
private  conduct;  that  was  a  peculiarity  of  Geneva 
at  his  coming.    But  he  made  a  serious  attempt  to 


84  John  Cai.vin:  The:  Statesman. 

recover  for  the  Church,  itself  a  creature  of  the 
State  and  regulated  by  the  State,  the  right  of  in- 
dependent discipline.  Within  the  limits  of  its  own 
power,  the  Church  was  not  to  look  to  the  State 
for  aid  in  the  enforcement  of  its  discipline,  and 
the  State  was  not  to  be  called  upon  until  such 
time  as  the  Church  was  proved  to  be  unable  to 
control  its  own  recalcitrant  members. 

The  reformers  contended  for  the  right  of  ex- 
communication in  cases  of  stubborn  disobedience; 
the  magistrates  were  not  unwilling  to  assist  in  the 
maintenance  of  discipline,  but  did  not  commit  them- 
selves at  once  to  the  clause  of  excommunication. 
The  whole  people  were  not  to  be  brought  into  line 
by  such  restrictions  as  Calvin  desired  to  impose. 
Many  of  the  influential  citizens  refused  to  take  the 
oath  of  the  Confession.  The  Council  found  it  im- 
possible to  enforce  the  stiff  moral  regimen.  In 
the  general  election  of  February,  1538,  the  anti- 
clerical party  managed  to  elect  four  syndics  and  a 
majority  of  the  Council,  among  whom  were  avowed 
enemies  of  Calvin. 

The  political  overturn  was  complete,  and  the 
jeers  of  the  populace  at  Far  el  and  Calvin  reflected 
the  new  attitude  of  the  authorities  toward  the  re- 
formers. A  harsh  order  with  regard  to  some  of 
the  friends  of  Calvin  brought  down  upon  the  Coun- 
cil of  Two  Hundred  severe  denunciation  on  the 
part  of  Calvin  and  his  yoke-fellow,  and  there  was 
passed  an  order  by  the  Council  forbidding  them 


First  Sojourn  in  Gejneva.  85 

"to  mix  in  politics,  but  to  preach  the  Gospel  as  God 
has  commanded."  The  same  session  of  the  Two 
Hundred  voted  "to  live  under  the  Word  of  God 
according  to  the  ordinances  of  the  lords  of  Bern." 
To  a  man  of  Calvin's  temper  this  was  too  insulting 
to  be  borne,  for  it  cut  away  completely  all  his  plan 
for  self-initiative  on  the  part  of  the  Church,  and 
left  in  the  hands  of  the  civil  power  the  determina- 
tion of  even  the  ritual  of  the  Church. 

To  return  now  to  the  point  of  the  ceremony 
involved.  The  declination  of  the  new  rulers  to 
adopt  a  thoroughgoing  policy  of  reform  aroused  the 
reformers  to  an  iron-willed  devotion  to  their  prin- 
ciples. Yield?  Not  they.  Not  an  inch.  They 
thundered  against  vices  and  charged  the  Council 
with  want  of  energy  in  their  neglect  to  use  proper 
means  for  improving  the  moral  condition  of  Ge- 
neva. The  return  stroke  was  not  long  in  falling. 
March  12th  Couralt,  who  was  even  more  vehement 
than  Farel,  was  ordered  to  cease  preaching.  But, 
undismayed,  he  took  the  pulpit  on  April  7th,  and 
lashed  the  people  and  magistrates  of  Geneva  with- 
out distinction.  He  compared  the  State  of  Geneva 
to  the  kingdom  of  frogs,  and  the  Genevese  to  rats. 
The  limit  of  forbearance  was  at  hand,  and  the 
fiery  preacher  was  imprisoned,  then  deported  to 
Thonon,  on  the  lake  shore,  where  his  death  before 
the  close  of  the  year  removed  one  of  the  stirrers 
of  strife  from  the  city.  To  Calvin  and  Farel,  how- 
ever, this  harshness  was  merely  reason  for  fresh 


86  John  Cai^vin:  The:  State:sman. 

denunciation  of  the  Council.  Calvin  called  it  the 
''Devil's  Council,"  and  had  a  tumult  in  the  city 
on  short  notice.  Libels  flew  around  the  ministers. 
In  the  cool  of  the  evening  they  heard  the  raucous 
voices  of  street  idlers  crying  out:  "To  the  Rhone 
with  the  traitors!" 

The  climax  was  reached  Easter  Sunday,  April 
2ist,  when  Calvin  preached  from  the  pulpit  of  St. 
Peter's,  and  Farel  from  that  of  St.  Gervais.  They 
had  been  ordered  by  the  authorities  to  celebrate  the 
Easter  Communion  after  the  Bernese  fashion,  but 
had  refused  to  do  so,  owing  to  the  existing  state 
of  insubordination,  and,  as  they  alleged,  to  the 
lamentable  debauchery  of  some  members  of  the 
church  who  persisted  in  coming  to  the  table  of  the 
Lord.  The  preachers  determined  that  God  should 
not  be  mocked  with  desecration,  and  they  refused 
to  distribute  the  elements.  This  made  the  breach 
complete. 

To  comprehend  the  gravity  of  the  situation,  one 
must  know  the  claims  of  Bern  to  right  of  offering 
its  services  to  its  younger  ally.  Geneva  had  not 
been  unwilling  to  accept  the  advice  of  Bern,  and 
indeed  had  generally  adopted  the  suggestions  of 
the  Bernese  Republic.  But  when  the  pastors  of 
Bern  ventured  to  suggest  the  retention  of  the  font, 
and  of  certain  fetes,  Christmas,  New  Year's,  An- 
nunciation, and  Ascension  Day,  and  the  use  of  un- 
leavened bread  in  the  Lord's  Supper,  there  was 
friction.    All  these  Calvin  had  suppressed.    While 


First  Sojourn  in  Ge:ne:va.  87 

he  did  not  lay  stress  upon  ceremonies,  he  cer- 
tainly did  not  share  the  fanatic  scorn  of  the  igno- 
rant touching  some  of  the  Catholic  rites.  His 
theology  may  have  been  narrow  in  some  respects, 
but  his  attitude  towards  the  English  Prayer-Book 
had  in  it  a  reflection  of  his  general  compass  of 
mind:  "The  Book  of  Common  Prayer  had  in  it 
tolerabiles  ineptias;  some  follies,  which,  however, 
might  be  easily  allowed  to^pass."  In  his  catechism 
which  he  published  in  1538,  at  Basel,  he  said:  "We 
should  rather  endeavor  (to  secure)  a  unity  of  doc- 
trine and  spirit  among  Christians  than  pettedly  in- 
sist on  establishing  certain  ceremonies.  Little  will 
be  said  of  forms  on  the  Day  of  Judgment." 

While  it  may  be  possible  to  discover  in  this 
statement  of  1538  an  indirect  attempt  to  correct  the 
efforts  of  the  Bernese  to  clap  their  rites  upon  the 
Genevese  in  1537,  at  any  rate  when  Calvin  was 
summoned  by  the  Council  to  conform  in  1537  to 
the  Bernese  usages,  he  stoutly  refused  to  com- 
promise the  independence  of  the  Genevan  Church 
by  adopting  them.  With  this  spirit  he  and  his  com- 
panion had  delivered  their  minds  on  Easter  Day 
and  had  withheld  the  elements,  for  fear  of  profan- 
ing "so  'loly  a  mystery"  under  the  circumstanced 
of  popular  tumult.  That  there  was  reason  in  their 
refusal  may  be  granted  when  we  hear  of  the  pres- 
ence of  many  hearers  with  drawn  swords,  and 
whose  noisy  objections  drowned  the  voices  of  the 
preachers.     The  services  closed  and  friends  gath- 


88  John  Cai^vin:  The  State^sman. 

ered  about  to  give  safe  conduct  home  to  the  min- 
isters. An  ordinary  man  would  have  felt  that  he 
had  sufficiently  waved  his  colors  in  the  face  of  the 
enemy,  but  John  Calvin  was  not  an  ordinary  man. 
Despite  the  fact  that  the  Little  Council  was  sum- 
moned immediately,  and  called  the  Two  Hundred 
together  for  the  day  following,  and  the  General 
Assembly  for  the  day  thereafter,  Calvin  delivered 
another  sermon  at  night  on  Easter  Day  in  the 
Church  of  St.  Francis  at  Rive  in  the  lower  part 
of  the  city.  Here  he  was  again  threatened  with 
violence. 

By  a  large  vote  of  the  General  Assembly  April 
23d,  Calvin  and  Farel  were  ordered  to  leave  Geneva 
within  three  days.  No  sign  of  dismay  was  evident 
in  the  appearance  and  words  of  the  two  men, 
Farel,  who  said  to  the  messenger,  "Well  and  good ; 
it  is  from  God;"  and  Calvin,  who  remarked:  "It 
is  better  to  serve  God  than  man.  If  we  had  sought 
to  please  men,  we  should  have  been  badly  rewarded, 
but  we  serve  a  higher  Master,  who  will  not  with- 
hold from  us  our  reward."  The  dry  pages  of  the 
Register  of  the  Council  on  which  were  entered  the 
words  the  messenger  brought  back,  tell  their  own 
story  of  the  uncrushed  spirit  of  Calvin,  for  he  left 
Geneva  immediately  for  Bern  and  laid  the  case 
before  the  authorities  of  that  city.  Bern  was  de- 
sirous of  securing  conformity  touching  ceremonies, 
but  had  good  cause  to  fear  for  the  safety  of  the 
Protestant   reform    in    Geneva,    and    appealed   to 


l^iRST  Sojourn  in  Gisn^va.  89 

Geneva  for  modification  of  its  legislation.    Geneva 
refused   to   listen.     Meanwhile   Calvin   and   Farel 
pushed  on  to  Zurich  and  sought  the  interference 
of  the  Synod  which  was  in  session  April  28th.    Be- 
fore this  body  they  declared  that  in  their  attitude 
there  was  no  objection  to  the  Bernese  rites  if  the 
liberties  of  the  individual  church  were  not  affected, 
but  they  reaffirmed  their  position  regarding  a  pro- 
gramme for  church  reform.    They  got  some  sym- 
pathy from  the  Synod,  though  they  were  advised 
to  use  more  tactful  ways  of  gaining  the  end  de- 
sired in  the  midst  of  a  people  unused  to  rigorous 
discipline.     The    Synod   also   sent   them  to   Bern 
with    recommendation   for    support   in   their   pur- 
pose  to   gain   admission   to    Geneva,   and   to   this 
Bern  lent  a  willing  hand,  but  when  the  embassy 
dispatched   by   Bern   with   Calvin   and   Farel   ap- 
proached Geneva  they  found  a  hostile  order  refus- 
ing them  entrance,   and  were   compelled  to  turn 
back.     Geneva  confirmed  the  sentence  of  banish- 
ment. May  28th,  and  fell  to  rejoicing  over  the  vic- 
tory by  which  baptismal  fonts  and  unleavened  bread 
were  to  be  used  by  unregenerate  communicants. 
It  remained  to  be  seen  how  far  they  could  make 
safe  pilgrimage  towards  the  goal  unguided  by  the 
man  they  had  pushed  out.     For  the  present,  they 
were  glad  to  go  on  without  interference,   dicta- 
tion,  or   inspiration   from  John   Calvin. 

For  his  part  he  left  Geneva,  having  failed,  but 
undisgraced.      His    natural    impetuosity    did    not 


90  John  Cai^vin:  The  Statesman. 

easily  adjust  itself  to  the  party  strifes  of  the  con- 
tentious community  all  too  slowly  going,  as  he 
thought,  towards  a  self-governing,  orderly,  Chris- 
tian city.  The  exiles  bent  their  faces  to  Basel, 
where  they  had  good  welcome.  Shortly  Farel  went 
to  Neufchatel,  and  two  months  later  Calvin  left 
for  Strassburg. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

YEARS  OF  EXILE. 

The  city  in  which  Calvin  found  refuge  was  a 
free  imperial  city  of  Germany,  a  sort  of  connecting 
link  between  Germany,  France  and  Switzerland, 
and  hospitable  for  the  present  to  all  Protestants,  so 
that  those  from  France  styled  it  the  New  Jeru- 
salem. Having  accepted  the  Reformation  in  1523 
in  a  spirit  of  evangelical  friendship  for  the  two 
types  of  Protestantism,  the  Lutheran  and  the 
Zwinglian,  it  became  a  clearing  house  for  theolog- 
ical harmony,  and  influenced  by  Martin  Bucer,  a 
leader  in  irenic  thought.  Distinguished  refugees 
from  France  turned  their  steps  thither  with  special 
hopes  of  undisturbed  enjoyment  of  free  speech,  free 
worship,  and  freedom  for  organizing  their  mem- 
berships into  self-governing  communities.  The 
later  intolerance  which  attached  to  Strassburg  did 
not  at  this  time  hinder  Calvin  from  finding  sym- 
pathetic welcome. 

He  reached  Strassburg  the  first  days  of  Sep- 
tember, 1538,  and  preached  his  first  sermon  on  the 
8th  of  the  same  month.    The  leaders  of  the  Church 
gave  him  their  confidence  and  open  arms,  and  he 
91 


92  John  Calvin:  Th^  Statesman. 

received  the  appointment  by  the  Council  of  pro- 
fessor of  theology,  with  a  small  salary  accompany- 
ing. That  it  was  insufficient  we  are  not  in  doubt, 
and  only  the  proferred  kindness  of  an  intimate 
friend,  du  Tillet,  revealed  to  the  deeply-wounded 
and  chagrined  scholar  that  he  need  not  depend  upon 
official  support,  if  only  he  would  become  content 
to  withhold  himself  from  public  activity.  This 
Calvin  could  not  do,  and  he  declined  the  aid  offered 
by  his  old  friend,  who,  by  the  way,  was  now  turn- 
ing his  face  back  to  Romanism.  Calvin's  financial 
distress  was  oftentimes  very  real.  To  make  ends 
meet  he  swelled  the  fifty-two  florins  of  annual  sal- 
ary which  he  got  from  the  authorities,  by  taking 
young  French  students  to  board.  To  his  beloved 
Farel  he  wrote:  "I  am  so  needy,  that  I  have  not  a 
cent  in  my  pocket.  You  will  be  unwilling  to  credit 
how  expensive  it  is  to  keep  house."  Farel  man- 
aged to  send  him  some  money  for  lifting  the  tem- 
porary burden.  But  the  proud-spirited  man  made 
it  a  condition  that  he  should  accept  no  more  than 
he  could  hope  to  repay  within  a  reasonable  time. 
He  worked  on,  not  infrequently  without  the  plain- 
est necessities  of  life,  but  noted  for  a  remarkable 
generosity  which  gave  to  others  all  above  his  bare 
living. 

Yet  he  had  an  increasing  number  of  friends, 
was  happy  in  his  work,  and  steadily  ripened  for 
the  severe  struggles  awaiting  him  in  the  future. 
It  was  a  fortunate  respite  for  him,  and  he  grew  in 


YijARS  o^  ExiivE.  93 

self-restraint,  and  power  of  control  of  the  elements 
of  conflict.  He  broadened  his  views  of  the  work 
of  the  Reformation,  coming  as  he  did  in  contact 
with  the  leaders  of  the  Lutheran  Church.  While 
he  deplored  their  lack  of  discipline,  and  the 
slavish  dependence  of  the  clergy  upon  the  princes, 
he  found  welcome  at  several  of  their  Colloquies 
summoned  for  the  settlement  of  disputed  questions. 
As  delegate  he  attended  the  diets  or  conferences 
of  Frankfort,  Hagenau,  Worms,  and  Ratisbon,  to 
aid  in  finding  some  common  ground  of  unity.  The 
task  was  a  delicate  and  difficult  one,  nor  were  the 
German,  Swiss,  and  French  Churches  harmonized, 
nor  the  lyUtherans  and  Zwinglians  reconciled  on 
the  question  of  the  Eucharist.  At  that  time  no 
man  was  equal  to  the  solution  of  the  problem.  In 
these  meetings  Calvin  became  more  or  less  inti- 
mate with  Melanchthon  and  other  leaders,  and  their 
valuation  of  him  appears  in  the  words  with  which 
they  characterized  him, — "The  Theologian''  He 
never  met  Luther.  It  troubled  him  that  Luther 
refused  to  moderate  his  terms  in  the  argument  with 
Zwingli  on  the  subject  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  on 
which  the  great  German  never  entirely  broke  with 
the  Roman  Church,  while  the  Swiss  advanced  to 
the  most  modern  views.  Calvin  thought  more  of 
Luther  personally  than  of  Zwingli,  and  yet  he  de- 
clared: ''The  Swiss  may  therefore  be  excused  if 
they  distrust  the  attempts  at  reunion;  Luther's 
pride  compels  them  to  do  so." 


94  John  Cai^vin:  Th^  State:sman. 

While  dealing  with  his  growing  friendship  with 
some  of  the  German  Reformers,  it  may  be  well  to 
carry  to  the  conclusion  the  facts  touching  Calvin's 
regard  for  Luther.  Though  not  able  to  cultivate 
any  first-hand  knowledge  of  the  chief  hero  of  the 
Reformation,  Calvin  saw  the  heart  of  the  German, 
and  at  a  time  later  on  when  certain  persons  desir- 
ing to  irritate  Luther  pointed  out  several  passages 
in  Calvin's  works  in  which  allusion  was  made  to 
Luther  and  his  followers  in  harsh  terms  Luther 
examined  the  passages,  and  said:  "I  hope  Calvin 
will  think  better  of  me  some  day.  We  ought  to 
bear  with  something  from  so  excellent  a  man." 
Calvin  related  the  facts,  and  added,  *'If  we  are  not 
melted  by  so  much  gentleness  we  must  be  stones; 
as  for  me,  I  am  melted." 

John  Calvin  has  been  called,  not  without  con- 
siderable justification,  an  exacting  leader,  stiffly 
jealous  of  antagonisms,  harsh  in  his  dictatorship, 
and  impatient  of  any  contradiction.  But  no  one 
can  read  a  letter  he  wrote  to  BuUinger,  a  Zwing- 
lian,  and  fail  to  see  a  largeness  of  soul  far  above  the 
ordinary.  *'I  implore  you  never  to  forget  how  great 
a  man  Luther  is.  Think  with  what  courage,  what 
constancy,  what  power  he  has  devoted  himself  to 
spreading  the  doctrine  of  salvation  far  and  near. 
As  for  me,  I  have  often  said,  and  I  say  it  again, 
though  he  should  call  me  a  devil,  I  would  still  give 
him  due  honor,  and  recognize  him  in  spite  of  the 
great  faults  which  obscure  his  extraordinary  vir- 
tues as  a  mighty  servant  of  the  Lord." 


Years  oi^  Exii.e.  95 

The  presence  of  Calvin  at  the  Colloquies  reveals 
a  man  of  unyielding  consistency,  and  opposed  to 
the  advocates  of  compromise.  In  this  he  rivaled 
Luther  himself.  Though  he  acted  a  subordinate 
part,  due  to  his  unfamiliarity  with  the  German 
tongue,  he  commanded  the  utmost  respect  from 
all  persons  for  his  learning  and  intellectual  pene- 
tration. He  doubted  the  sincerity  of  Charles  V, 
Emperor,  and  set  himself  against  the  pacific  intent 
of  the  conferences,  then  rather  disposed  to  favor 
an  alliance  between  the  German  Princes  and  Fran- 
cis I,  the  principal  enemy  of  the  Emperor.  His 
correspondence  with  Marguerite  of  Valois,  through 
his  friend  Sleidan,  statesman  and  historian,  is  proof 
that  his  judgment  was  sought  and  his  influence  felt 
in  questions  that  concerned  the  future  of  the  Re- 
formed Church.  But  he  had  as  little  faith  in  Fran- 
cis I  as  in  the  Emperor.  Writing  to  Farel,  Sep- 
tember, 1540,  he  says:  "The  King  and  the  Emperor, 
while  contending  in  cruel  persecution  of  the  godly, 
both  endeavor  to  gain  the  favor  of  the  Roman 
idol."  No  sign  of  the  times  escaped  his  keen  eye. 
He  visited  the  meeting  at  Frankfort  to  make  the 
acquaintance  of  Melanchthon  and  to  plead  the 
cause  of  his  fellow-countrymen  suffering  in  the 
toils  of  bitter  persecution.  At  the  Colloquy  of 
Worms,  held  November,  1540,  he  is  seen  in  both 
public  disputation  and  private  solace  of  scholarship. 
For  it  was  here  that  he  defeated  Robert  Mosham, 
and  won  the  title  "The  Theologian,"  and  at  the 


96  John  Cai^vin:  Ths  Statesman. 

same  place  wrote  in  poetic  form  the  triumph  of 
Christ  over  His  enemies,  such  as  Eck  and  Coch- 
laeus.  Calvin  was  not  a  poet  by  nature,  and  never 
distinguished  himself  as  a  writer  of  verse,  yet  he 
says  in  the  concluding  lines  of  this  poem : 

''Quod  natura  negat,  studii  eMcit  ardor  f  by 
study  he  made  up  for  the  lack  of  genius. 

The  Diet  of  Regensburg  he  attended  very  re- 
luctantly, not  being  suited  to  such  work,  as  he 
affirmed,  and  feeling  it  to  be  a  waste  of  time  to 
deal  with  the  legates  sent  from  Rome  by  the  Pope. 
He  held  Dr.  Eck  in  contempt,  as  ''a  babbler  and  an 
impudent  sophist."  Eck  had  a  stroke  of  apoplexy, 
and  on  his  recovery  Calvin  wrote:  "Nondum 
meretur  mundus  ista  bestia  liherari" — the  world 
had  not  yet  earned  its  deliverance  from  that  beast. 

The  use  of  such  caustic  and  even  brutal  phrases 
by  so  cultured  a  leader  as  Calvin  will  make  credible 
the  stories  of  the  most  vicious  invectives  hurled  at 
each  other  by  passionate  theologians  in  the  six- 
teenth century.  No  one  seems  to  have  had  a 
monopoly  of  defamatory  epithets,  for  Catholic  and 
Protestant  alike  indulged,  sometimes  to  the  full, 
the  disposition  to  use  vile  words  against  an  antagon- 
ist. The  air  of  the  century  was  electric  with  harsh 
invective.  The  famous  Bull  of  Pope  Leo  X  against 
Luther  leads  the  list  of  damnatory  papers.  Nor 
was  the  reply  of  the  stout  Reformer  at  all  reticent 
in  this  regard.  Even  so  mild  a  man  as  Erasmus 
called   Farel   "a   lying,   virulent,    seditious   soul" 


Y^ARS  o^  ExiL^.  97 

Henry  VIII  and  Luther  exchanged  titles  quite  ob- 
noxious to  ears  polite  in  a  later  day.  The  habit 
had  not  died  out  even  in  the  next  century,  for  the 
great  English  poet,  Milton,  defended  the  cause  of 
the  Protestants  with  tremendous  vigor  and  freedom 
of  expression.  Calvin's  successor,  Theodore  Beza, 
a  man  of  the  highest  culture  and  refinement,  in  dis- 
cussing the  doctrine  of  the  Eucharist  with  Eilman, 
the  Lutheran  who  advocated  the  notion  of  "the  real 
presence,"  calls  him  *'an  ass  with  a  doctor's  cap 
upon  his  head,  a  dog  swimming  in  a  bath,  an 
asinine  sophist,  an  impudent  rogue,  a  sycophant, 
a  polyphemus,  a  monster  half  monkey,  half  ogre, 
a  carnivorous  animal,  a  cyclops,  a  papist." 

These  sturdy  epithets  cause  us  to  doubt  if  their 
judgments  can  be  relied  upon  in  our  attempt  to 
deal  fairly  with  both  parties  in  the  great  contro- 
versy. The  bias  of  the  writers  certainly  vitiates 
the  sources  of  the  period.  When  Luther  led  the 
way  it  is  not  surprising  that  his  followers  were 
unwilling  to  lag  far  behind ;  and  yet  none  of  them 
quite  equaled  him  in  his  invidious  epithets.  He 
searches  the  pages  of  Terence,  and  when  they  fail 
him,  he  ransacks  the  peasants'  vocabulary,  and  to 
him  his  opponents  are  lions,  asses,  bats,  moles, 
goats,  pigs.  His  range  includes  not  only  theo- 
logical but  zoological  nomenclature  for  bitter 
words  with  which  he  punishes  his  foes. 

Yet  to  his  friends  Calvin  was  the  soul  of  tender 
devotion.  During  the  period  of  the  Colloquies  his 
7 


98  John  Cai^vin:  The  State:sman. 

correspondence,  is  full  of  evidences  of  intimate 
associations.  Not  the  least  of  his  gains  was  his 
friendship  with  Melanchthon.  They  had  become 
acquainted  in  October,  1538,  and  it  was  through 
#  Melanchthon  that  Calvin  knew  Luther  and  sent 
salutations  to  him.  The  cause  of  the  Reformation 
was  a  real  gainer  by  this,  for  Luther  had  fallen 
out  with  the  earlier  Swiss  Reformers,  being  "in- 
curably poisoned"  against  Zwingli,  and  now  that 
the  conflict  between  the  Protestants  and  the  Cath- 
olics was  deepening,  it  was  fortunate  that  the  old 
leader  and  the  new  had  no  occasion  to  revive 
slumbering  hatreds  or  disagreements.  Calvin  was 
twelve  years  younger  than  Melanchthon,  yet  he 
was  received  by  the  German  on  equal  terms.  They 
were  not  unlike  in  some  regards,  in  others  far 
apart.  Both  were  remarkably  precocious  as  young 
students,  and  grew  learned,  polished  and  sensitive 
to  all  the  appeals  of  the  new  learning.  Both 
were  modest,  Calvin  was  shy  and  yet  combative 
to  a  notable  extent;  Melanchthon,  feminine  and 
disposed  to  compromise,  Calvin  fearless,  Me- 
lanchthon shrinkiiT^,  but  both  heartily  desirous 
of  union  in  the  ranks  of  the  Protestants. 
Though  they  differed  on  some  points  of  doc- 
trine they  showed  that  theologians  could  cultivate 
true  amity  and  spiritual  harmony.  After  the  Col- 
loquy they  saw  each  other  no  more,  but  their  cor- 
respondence reveals  a  noble  type  of  intimacy.  The 
lack  of  a  swift  post  is  noticed  by  Calvin  in  a  let- 


Years  o^  Exile.  99 

ter  to  Melanchthon :  "You  see  to  what  a  lazy  fellow 
you  have  entrusted  your  letter.  It  was  full  four 
months  before  he  delivered  it  to  me,  and  then 
crushed  and  crumpled  with  much  usage."  He  ex- 
presses a  wish  that  they  "could  oftener  converse 
together  were  it  only  by  letters.  To  you  it  would 
be  no  advantage;  but  to  nie,  nothing  in  this  world 
could  be  more  desirable  than  to  take  solace  in  the 
mind  and  gentle  spirit  of  your  correspondence." 

In  his  reply  Melanchthon  confesses  his  inferi- 
ority as  a  writer,  and  yet  suggests  to  Calvin  that 
he  bore  down  too  hard  upon  the  side  of  the  Divine 
Sovereignty,  and  did  not  give  fair  play  to  the 
human  will.  As  for  himself  he  did  not  dare  say 
that  he  had  reached  a  solution  of  the  abysses  of 
predestination  and  free  will,  and  adds:  "Let  us 
accuse  our  own  will  if  we  fall,  and  not  find  the 
cause  in  God."  Nor  could  Calvin  budge  him  from 
his  milder  view.  There  must  have  been  something 
very  fine  in  the  esteem  and  affection  which  grew 
with  the  passing  years,  for  as  has  been  said,  we 
have  the  only  example  of  a  Reformer  republishing 
the  work  of  another  Reformer,  a  rival  of  his  own 
work  and  differing  from  it  in  several  points,  in 
the  act  of  Calvin  when  he  issued  and  commended 
the  "Theological  Commonplaces"  of  Melanchthon. 

A  year  after  the  death  of  Melanchthon,  which 
occurred  in  1560,  Calvin  thus  addressed  his  sainted 
friend :  "O  Philip  Melanchthon !  for  it  is  upon  thee 
that  I  call,  upon  thee,  who  now  livest  with  Christ 


loo         John  Cai^vin:  Th^  Statesman. 

in  God,  and  art  waiting  there  for  us,  until  we  shall 
also  be  gathered  with  thee  to  that  blessed  rest !  A 
hundred  times,  worn  out  with  fatigue  and  over- 
whelmed with  care,  thou  didst  lay  thy  head  upon 
my  breast,  and  say :  "Would  God  that  I  might  die 
here,  on  thy  breast.  And  I,  a  thousand  times  since 
then  have  earnestly  desired  that  it  had  been  granted 
us  to  be  together.  Certainly  thou  wouldst  have 
been  more  valiant  to  face  danger,  and  stronger  to 
despise  hatred,  and  bolder  to  disregard  false  accu- 
sations. Thus  the  wickedness  of  many  would  have 
been  restrained,  whose  audacity  of  insult  was  in- 
creased by  what  they  called  thy  weakness."  In 
this  one  can  see  the  real  affection  between  the 
two  men,  and  also  the  grand  self-confidence  which 
the  iron-willed  leader  of  Geneva  put  at  the  dis- 
posal of  his  less  courageous  friend. 

It  was  during  his  stay  at  Strassburg  that 
Calvin's  power  as  a  controversialist  was  put  to  the 
highest  test,  and  with  the  fullest  proof  that  he  could 
debate  without  stooping  to  vilification.  In  his  fa- 
mous reply  to  Sadolet,  he  vindicated  the  Reforma- 
tion in  terms  that  left  him  alone  of  the  band  of 
Reformers  at  the  top  of  fame,  the  most  able,  adroit, 
and  convincing  disputant  of  the  century.  His  vic- 
tory was  over  a  remarkable  man. 

Jacopo  Sadoleto,  born  1477,  died  1547,  was  sec- 
retary to  Leo  X,  and  spent  his  surplus  cash  for 
Greek  manuscripts.  His  name  is  connected  with 
one  of  the  rarest  "finds"  of  the  age.    One  day  in 


Y^ARS   0^   EXII.K.  lOI 

1506,  some  workmen  ran  to  inform  Sadolet  that 
they  had  found  in  the  gardens  of  Titus  a  group 
from  an  unknown  but  admirable  Greek  chisel.  He 
hastened  to  the  spot  and  discovered  that  the  group 
was  what  is  known  as  "The  Laocoon,"  easily  rec- 
ognized from  Pliny's  description.  On  account  of 
the  unearthing  of  the  treasure  Rome  rang  with 
jubilation,  and  in  the  evening  the  church  bells 
pealed  out  the  joy  of  the  whole  city.  The  day 
following  the  group  was  drawn  in  triumph  to  the 
Vatican.  Sadolet  was  a  veritable  child  of  the 
Ranaissance.  After  serving  as  Secretary  to  Leo 
X,  he  became  Bishop  of  Carpentras,  in  Dauphiny, 
then  Secretary  to  Clement  VII,  and  finally  Cardi- 
nal, since  1536.  He  bore  the  reputation  of  a 
scholar,  poet,  devout  gentleman,  loyal  Churchman. 
Beza  does  not  do  him  justice  in  speaking  of  him 
as  "a  man  of  great  eloquence,  but  he  perverted  it 
chiefly  in  suppressing  the  light  of  truth.  He  had 
been  appointed  cardinal  for  no  other  reason  than 
that  his  moral  respectability  might  serve  to  put  a 
kind  of  gloss  on  false  religion."  Neither  Protestant 
nor  Catholic  could  then  use  the  exact  color  to 
paint  a  motive  or  to  interpret  an  action,  when  an 
enemy  was  involved  in  the  picture.  Both  Sadolet 
and  Calvin  wrote  in  a  style  and  with  a  power  to  do 
them  both  credit,  save  that  Calvin's  was  the  master 
mind. 

The  time  of  Calvin's  exile  from  Geneva  was  a 
shining  opportunity  for  the  Catholics,  and  the  dis- 


I02         John  Cai^vin:  The:  State:sman. 

possessed  Bishop  of  Geneva  saw  his  hour.  He 
brought  together  several  bishops,  and  as  a  result 
of  their  conference  Sadolet  was  chosen  to  make  an 
appeal  to  the  Genevese.  This  he  did  in  March, 
1539.  His  eloquence  was  notably  persuasive,  and 
his  spirit  without  rancor.  Perhaps  the  only  blot  in 
his  address  was  an  uncharitable  reflection  upon  the 
character  and  motives  of  the  Reformers.  After 
using  various  arguments,  based  upon  the  antiquity, 
the  unity,  the  universality,  and  the  inerrancy  of 
the  Church,  and  pleading  with  the  citizens  of 
Geneva  to  return  to  the  fold,  he  closed  as  follows : 
"Whatever  I  can  possibly  do  although  it  is  very 
little,  still  if  I  have  any  talent,  skill,  authority,  in- 
dustry, I  offer  them  to  you  and  your  interests,  and 
will  regard  it  as  a  great  favor  to  myself  should 
you  be  able  to  reap 'any  fruit  and  advantage  from 
my  labor  and  assistance  in  things  human  and  di- 
vine." 

The  Council  received  the  letter  with  polite  ac- 
knowledgments, but  found  no  one  in  Geneva  able 
to  make  fitting  reply,  in  which  fact  the  Romanists 
found  cause  for  encouragement.  A  copy  of  the 
letter  fell  into  the  hands  of  Calvin,  and  in  six  days 
he  wrote  an  answer,  and  sent  it  September  ist,  to 
Sadolet.  He  had  not  been  mentioned  by  name  in 
the  address  of  Sadolet,  yet  he  felt  himself  indirectly 
assailed  as  the  chief  disturber  of  the  peace  of 
Geneva.  The  letter  of  Calvin  has  been  called  ''per- 
haps the  ablest  vindication  of  the  Reformation  to 


YfjARS  0^  Exiiv^.  103 

be  found  in  the  controversial  literature  of  that 
time."  ^  Step  by  step  he  discusses  the  points  made 
by  the  Cardinal,  and  with  consummate  skill  sets 
the  cause  of  Protestantism  fairly  before  the  world. 
While  paying  tribute  to  the  learning  of  the  Cardi- 
nal, and  refraining  from  insinuations  as  to  his  op- 
ponent's lack  of  good  faith,  and  while  expressing 
reluctance  to  oppose  him,  yet  with  frankness  and 
dignity  he  crushes  the  Cardinal's  position: 

"If  you  had  attacked  me  in  my  private  character,  I 
would  easily  have  forgiven  the  attack,  in  consideration  of 
your  learning,  and  in  honor  of  letters.  But  when  I  see 
that  my  ministry,  which  I  feel  assured  is  supported  and 
sanctioned  by  a  call  from  God,  is  wounded  through  my 
side,  it  would  be  perfidy,  not  patience,  were  I  here  to  be 
silent  and  connive." 

So  he  marches  forward.  Answering  the  charge 
that  he  had  left  the  Church  of  Rome  because  of 
disappointment,^  he  says : 

"Had  I  wished  to  consult  my  own  interest,  I  would 
never  have  left  your  party.  ...  I  have  no  fear  that 
any  one  not  possessed  of  shameless  effrontery  will  object 
to  me,  that  out  of  the  kingdom  of  the  pope  I  sought  for 
any  personal  advantage  which  was  not  there  ready  to  my 
hand." 

The  Cardinal's  beautiful  picture  of  an  ideal 
Catholicism  is  spoiled  by  the  Reformer  in  a  descrip- 
tion of  the  abuses  and  corruptions  of  the  Church 
from  which  sprang  the  Reformation.    Calvin  paints 


1  Dr.  p.  Schaff. 


104         John  Cai^vin:  Th^  Statesman. 

with  dark  colors,  confirmed,  however,  by  the  lives 
of  such  Popes  as  Alexander  VI  and  by  the  charges 
of  Savonarola,  and  the  impartial  witness  of  Mac- 
chiavelli,  the  religion  of  Rome.  As  to  the  asser- 
tion of  Sadolet  that  the  only  aim  of  the  Reformers 
in  casting  off  the  heavy  yoke  of  Rome  was  to  get 
freedom  for  licentiousness,  he  compares  conduct 
with  conduct. 

"We  abound,  indeed,  in  numerous  faults;  too  often  do 
we  sin  and  fall.  Still,  though  truth  would,  modesty  will 
not  permit  me  to  boast  how  far  we  excel  you  in  every 
respect,  unless  perchance  you  except  Rome,  that  famous 
abode  of  sanctity,  which  having  burst  asunder  the  cords 
of  pure  discipline,  and  trodden  all  honor  under  foot,  has 
so  overflowed  with  all  kinds  of  iniquity,  that  scarcely  any- 
thing so  abominable  has  ever  been  before." 

The  personal  note  is  struck  in  Calvin's  match- 
less reply  to  the  citation  of  the  Cardinal  to  the 
Reformers  to  appear  as  criminals  before  the  judg- 
ment seat  of  God  to  answer  for  the  guilt  of  the 
"great  seditions  and  schisms ;"  in  this  he  reaches  a 
truly  dramatic  power  of  statement  in  an  imaginary 
counter-confession  on  the  part  of  the  Reformers, 
in  which  while  he  no  doubt  lines  up  all  the  Reform- 
ers before  the  throne  of  God,  yet  the  spokesman  is 
Calvin  himself,  reciting  his  own  struggles  in  leav- 
ing the  Church.  The  only  other  place  in  which  he 
so  specifically  refers  to  his  own  experience  is  in  his 
introduction  to  the  Commentary  on  the  Psalms. 

"They  charged  me  with  two  of  the  worst  of  crimes — 
heresy  and  schism.     And  the  heresy  was,  that  I  dared  to 


YijARS  o:^  Exii,e:.  105 

protest  against  dogmas  which  they  had  received.  But 
what  could  I  have  done?  I  heard  from  Thy  mouth  that 
there  was  no  other  light  of  truth  which  could  direct  our 
souls  into  the  way  of  life,  than  that  which  was  kindled 
by  Thy  Word,  I  heard  that  whatever  human  minds  of 
themselves  conceive  concerning  Thy  Majesty,  the  wor- 
ship of  Thy  Deity,  and  the  mysteries  of  Thy  religion,  was 
vanity.  I  heard  that  their  introducing  into  the  Church 
instead  of  Thy  Word,  doctrines  sprung  from  the  human 
brain,  was  sacrilegious  presumption.  .  .  .  That  I  might 
perceive  these  things,  Thou,  O  Lord,  did'st  shine  upon  me 
with  the  brightness  of  Thy  Spirit;  that  I  might  compre- 
hend how  impious  and  noxious  they  were.  Thou  did'st 
bear  before  me  the  torch  of  Thy  Word ;  that  I  might  abom- 
inate them  as  they  deserved,  Thou  didst  stimulate  my 
soul;  .  .  ."  (He  tells  how  solemn  expiations  failed  to 
bring  peace).  .  .  .  "When,  however,  I  had  performed 
all  these  things,  though  I  had  some  intervals  of  quiet,  I 
was  still  far  off  from  true  peace  of  conscience;  for,  when- 
ever I  descended  into  myself,  or  raised  my  mind  to  Thee, 
extreme  terror  seized  me — terror  which  no  expiations  or 
satisfactions  could  cure.  And  the  more  closely  I  examined 
myself,  the  sharper  the  stings  with  which  my  conscience 
was  pricked,  so  that  the  only  solace  which  remained  to  me, 
was  to  delude  myself  by  obliviousness.  Still  as  nothing 
better  offered,  I  continued  the  course  which  I  had  begun, 
when  lo !  a  very  different  form  of  doctrine  started  up,  not 
one  which  led  us  away  from  the  Christian  profession,  but 
one  which  brought  it  back  to  its  fountain-head,  and  as  it 
were,  clearing  away  the  dross,  restored  it  to  its  original 
purity.  .  .  .  My  mind  being  now  prepared  for  serious 
attention,  I  at  length  perceived,  as  if  light  had  broken  in 
upon  me,  in  what  a  sty  of  error  I  had  wallowed,  and  how 
mftch  pollution  and  impurity  I  had  thereby  contracted. 
Being  exceedingly  alarmed  at  the  misery  into  which  I  had 
fallen,  and  much  more  at  that  which  threatened  me  in 


io6         John  Calvin:  The  Statesman. 

view  of  eternal  death,  I  as  in  duty  bound  made  it  my  first 
business  to  betake  myself  to  Thy  way,  condemning  my 
past  life,  not  without  groans  and  tears." 

He  closes  the  virile  document  with  a  direct  ap- 
peal to  the  Cardinal: 

"May  the  Lord  grant,  Sadolet,  that  you  and  all 
your  party  may  at  length  perceive  that  the  only  true  bond 
of  Church  unity  is  Christ  the  Lord,  who  has  reconciled 
us  to  God  the  Father,  and  will  gather  us  out  of  our  present 
dispersion  into  the  fellowship  of  His  body,  that  so,  through 
His  one  Word  and  Spirit,  we  may  grow  together  into  one 
heart  and  one  soul." 

The  Answer  was  instantly  welcomed  in  many 
quarters  as  an  entire  reply.  The  impression  proved 
deep  and  lasting.  It  was  put  into  several  languages. 
The  papal  party  at  Geneva  gave  up  all  hope  of  re- 
storing the  Mass.  When  Luther  read  it  he  said 
to  Cruciger :  ''This  answer  has  hands  and  feet,  and 
I  rejoice  that  God  has  raised  up  men  who  will 
give  the  last  blow  to  popery,  and  finish  the  war 
against  anti-Christ  which  I  began." 

The  prestige  of  Calvin  attained  a  notable  height 
as  a  result  of  this  controversy,  and  the  hope  of  his 
return  to  Geneva  on  the  part  of  his  friends  there 
became  increasingly  marked.  But  the  hour  did 
not  come  immediately.  Meanwhile  he  gave  his  at- 
tention to  study,  to  instruction,  and  to  organiza- 
tion in  Strassburg.  His  career  was  one  of  inces- 
sant toil.  Calvin  was  one  of  the  world's  workers. 
Few  men  have  ever  flung  themselves  into  their 
work  as  this  abstemious,  self-denying,  sickly 
scholar,  consumed  with  a  desire  to  establish  his 


Years  of  Exii.k.  107 

system  beyond  a  peradventure.  The  model  after 
which  the  Reformed  Churches  in  Geneva  and 
France  were  formed  was  shaped  by  him  during 
his  residence  in  Strassburg.  No  item  which  could 
in  any  way  have  to  do  with  the  success  of  his 
great  experiment  was  overlooked.  He  was 
preacher,  teacher,  builder,  theologian  and  practi- 
cal manager.  His  first  sermon  was  delivered  in 
the  Church  of  St.  Nicholas,  though  afterwards  he 
preached  in  the  church  now  known  as  the  Magdalen 
Kirche.  Twice  a  day  on  Sunday  and  four  times 
during  the  week  he  appealed  to  the  thought  and 
conscience  of  his  French  congregation.  He  intro- 
duced his  favorite  discipline,  and  being  left  undis- 
turbed by  the  magistracy  he  succeeded  far  better 
than  he  had  done  in  Geneva.  His  correspondence 
was  large.  He  was  a  busy  pastor,  was  consulted 
by  the  magistrates  on  all  important  questions  con- 
cerning religion,  and  gave  himself  to  numberless 
persons  who  came  to  consult  him  upon  private 
matters.  He  found  time  to  compose  his  Commen- 
taries on  St.  Paul's  Epistles,  and  rewrote  and  en- 
larged his  Institutes. 

A  worthy  fruit  of  his  pastorate  was  the  Liturgy 
which  he  introduced  in  Strassburg  and  later  in 
Geneva.  Farel  had  used  a  form  for  worship,  con- 
sisting of  a  general  prayer,  the  Lord's  Prayer  (be- 
fore the  Sermon),  the  Decalogue,  confession  of 
sins,  repetition  of  the  Lord's  Prayer,  the  Apostles' 
Creed,  a  final  exhortation  and  the  benediction.    Of 


io8         John  Cai^vin:  Th^  Statesman. 

his  liturgy  only  the  form  for  marriage  survived. 
All  the  rest  was  recast  by  Calvin,  and  thus  used 
in  his  church.  In  1542  it  was  published  twice  and 
taken  up  by  the  congregation  at  Lausanne  and  so 
gradually  adopted  by  other  Reformed  Churches. 
His  Liturgy  revealed  the  dislike  entertained  by 
Calvin  of  all  the  cumbrous  ceremonial  of  the  Ro- 
man Church.  He  had  no  taste  for  the  artistic  and 
ornamental  features  of  worship,  indeed  leaned  to- 
wards the  rather  bare  and  sermon-loaded  service 
of  the  Puritan  age.  He  magnified  the  pulpit,  free 
prayer,  and  congregational  singing.  Beyond  this 
simple  outline  he  did  not  encourage  his  followers 
to  venture.  Though  he  did  not  favor  the  use  of  the 
organ  in  public  worship,  he  emphasized  to  the  full 
the  value  of  congregational  singing,  and  made  much 
use  of  the  Psalms  and  of  Clement  Marot's  verse, 
and  even  making  seven  of  his  own  compositions 
serve  the  cause  of  worship  in  the  Church.  His 
form  for  public  service,  substantially  that  of  the 
French  Reformed  Churches  to-day,  was  as  fol- 
lows: invocation,  confession  of  sin,  a  brief  absolu- 
tion, reading  of  the  Scriptures,  singing,  free  prayer, 
chanting  of  the  Psalms  by  the  congregation,  the 
sermon,  the  long  general  prayer,  the  Lord's  Prayer, 
singing  and  benediction.  Calvin  prepared  forms 
for  baptism  and  the  holy  communion.  As  to  the 
method  of  baptism  Calvin  regarded  immersion  as 
the  primitive  mode,  but  any  other  mode  as  equally 
valid.^     The  Sacrament  was  taken  once  a  month, 

1  Inst.  4;  XV;  No.  19. 


Y^ARS  o:^  Exile).  109 

from  which,  however,  all  unworthy  applicants  were 
excluded. 

Calvin  did  not  become  so  utterly  absorbed  in 
the  progress  of  the  Church  as  not  to  realize  that 
man  should  not  live  alone.  He  said  in  his  comment 
on  Ephesians  v,  28-33:  "It  is  a  thing  against  na- 
ture that  any  one  should  not  love  his  wife,  for  God 
has  ordained  marriage  in  order  that  two  may  be 
made  one  person."  Yet  he  seems  to  have  been  in 
no  haste  to  find  a  help-meet,  nor  did  he  marry  until 
1540.  He  rather  boasted  that  he  could  not  be 
charged  with  having  assailed  Rome,  as  the  Greeks 
had  Troy,  for  the  sake  of  a  woman.  His  friends, 
Farel  and  Bucer,  often  urged  him  to  take  a  wife, 
that  he  might  not  be  at  the  mercy  of  an  ill-tempered 
housekeeper.  His  love-making  was  not  that  of  a 
romancer,  for  in  writing  to  Farel,  May,  1539,  he 
says :  ''I  am  none  of  those  insane  lovers,  who  when 
once  smitten  with  the  fine  figure  of  a  woman,  em- 
brace also  her  faults.  This  is  the  only  beauty  which 
allures  me,  if  she  be  chaste,  obliging,  not  fastidious, 
economical,  patient,  and  careful  for  my  health. 
Therefore,  set  out  immediately."  If  this  sounds 
cold-blooded,  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  time 
was  the  sixteenth  century,  and  the  man  half-Stoic. 
Farel  evidently  was  unable  to  solve  the  problem, 
and  the  matter  was  dropped  for  awhile.  The  next 
move  was  to  consider  a  certain  lady  of  noble  rank 
who  had  been  recommended  to  him,  her  brother 
being  a  fervent  admirer  of  Calvin,  but  this  fell 


no         John  Calvin:  The:  Statesman. 

through.  Yet  again  he  came  near  marrying  a  lady 
who  was  highly  commended  to  him,  and  went  so 
far  as  to  invite  Farel  to  the  proposed  wedding. 
But  reports  of  her  led  him  to  drop  the  engagement. 
Finally  he  married  a  member  of  his  congregation, 
.Idelette  de  Bure,  the  widow  of  a  prominent  Ana- 
baptist, who  had  been  converted  to  the  true  faith 
under  Calvin's  teaching.  Her  gentle,  modest,  and 
yet  firm  character  won  the  love  of  the  Reformer, 
and  they  lived  in  happy  wedlock  for  nine  years. 
She  proved  to  be  a  real  help-meet,  called  by  her 
husband  ''the  excellent  companion  of  my  life." 
She  had  several  children  by  her  first  husband,  and 
one  by  Calvin,  a  son,  who  died  in  infancy,  1542. 
Of  the  death  of  this  son  Calvin  wrote  to  a  friend: 
"God  has  given  me  a  little  son,  and  taken  him  away ; 
but  I  have  myriads  of  children  in  the  whole  Chris- 
tian world."  The  miserable  slanders  of  such  writ- 
ers as  Bolsec  and  Audin  touching  the  home  life 
of  Calvin  and  his  cold  indifference  to  his  losses 
of  son,  and  later,  of  his  wife,  are  utterly  refuted 
by  letters  and  expressions  to  his  various  friends. 
Calvin  was  not  a  man  to  carry  his  heart  around  on 
exhibition  for  the  curious  multitude  to  gaze  at. 
He  felt  deeply,  but  seldom  gave  to  the  public  his 
private  joys  and  griefs. 

Calvin's  stay  in  Strassburg  was  of  utmost  mo- 
ment to  him;  he  had  made  friends,  won  a  wife, 
tried  successfully  his  programme  in  the  church  of 
which  he  was  pastor,  had  learned  the  weakness  of 


Ykars  of  Exil^.  Ill 

the  German  system,  and  in  all  that  counts  for  mas- 
tery of  problems  big  with  the  world's  destiny,  was 
not  less  firm  but  more  tactful,  not  less  earnest  but 
with  a  surer  tread,  wiser,  broader,  and  in  every 
way  matured  and  capable  of  facing  the  main  enter- 
prise of  his  life. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

RETURN  TO  GENEVA. 

On  leaving  France  for  his  journey  which  ter- 
minated in  Geneva,  in  1536,  Calvin  had  said  in 
pathetic  phrase :  ''I  am  driven  from  the  land  of  my 
birth.  Every  step  towards  its  boundaries  costs  me 
tears.  Perhaps  it  is  not  permitted  to  Truth  to 
dwell  in  France;  let  her  lot  be  mine."  He  had 
since  then  followed  Truth  at  some  hazard,  and  was 
still  some  distance  from  the  goal.  In  1538  he  had 
taken  up  his  march,  burning  with  ill-suppressed 
indignation  over  his  treatment  by  the  people  of 
Geneva.  Weaker  men  had  stepped  into  his  shoes. 
Worse  men  were  at  the  helm  of  Genevan  affairs. 
Reactions  came  and  went  with  little  prospects  of 
good  for  the  city,  and  even  dissensions  between 
Calvin's  brethren  in  the  city  augured  ill  for  the 
cause  so  dear  to  the  exile.  The  advantage  taken 
of  this  condition  on  the  part  of  the  Catholics 
reached  its  height  in  the  incident  of  Sadolet's  appeal 
and  the  reply  of  Calvin,  after  which  the  bishops 
could  have  little  expectations  of  recovering  lost 
ground  in  Geneva.  But  other  conditions  made  it 
imperative  that  the  Reformation  should  not  lose  out 
112 


Return  to  Ge:ne:va.  113 

in  the  city.  In  the  summer  of  1540  Bern  and 
Geneva  were  about  to  jump  at  each  other's  throats. 
The  turbulent  elements  in  the  city  called  for  effec- 
tive efforts  at  control.  As  the  autumn  drew  on 
the  party  that  had  supported  Calvin  got  the  gov- 
ernment in  their  hands,  but  the  populace  can  hardly 
be  said  to  have  wished  him  back. 

The  time  was  critical,  both  for  Geneva  and 
the  larger  Protestant  world.  During  the  years  of 
Calvin's  exile  Loyola  founded  the  Order  of  the 
Jesuits ;  then  occurred  the  reaction  under  Henry 
VIII  in  England,  when  the  Six  Articles  were  is- 
sued by  Parliament  defining  heresy,  and  compelling 
belief  in  transubstantiation,  communion  in  one  kind 
for  laymen,  celibacy  of  the  clergy,  inviolability  of 
vows  of  chastity,  necessity  of  private  masses,  and 
of  auricular  confession.  Charles  V  was  in  tem- 
porary alliance  wnth  Francis  I,  in  whose  realm  the 
political  rights  of  the  parliaments  were  being  re- 
stricted, and  the  religious  freedom  of  the  Protest- 
ants was  denied;  Spain  and  France  were  entering 
the  New  World — De  Soto  in  1539  ranging  the  Mis- 
sissippi Valley,  Cartier  in  1540  taking  the  St.  Law- 
rence for  his  king,  Pizarro  in  1541  the  Amazon, 
through  his  subordinate,  Orellano ; — the  Lutherans 
and  Zwinglians  were  unable  to  get  together;  and 
quite  as  significant,  while  the  various  Colloquies 
held  on  German  soil  between  Catholic  and  Prot- 
estants until  1 541  threw  the  Protestants  back  on 
themselves  and  widened  the  gap  between  themselves 
8 


114         John  Cai^vin:  The:  Statesman. 

and  their  enemies,  yet  disunion  with  Catholicism 
did  not  mean  union  among  Protestants.  Further, 
while  a  lamentable  apathy  was  settling  down  upon 
the  Reformers  and  they  were  confining  their  ener- 
gies to  a  defensive  opposition,  the  old  Church 
began  to  stir  with  a  new  missionary  zeal,  for 
reform  at  home  and  expansion  abroad. 

The  tiny  republic  had  rushed  to  the  brink  of 
ruin  during  Calvin's  absence.  As  his  keen  eye 
had  foreseen,  demoralization  began  to  dog  the  steps 
of  his  enemies.  In  the  place  of  the  expelled  preach- 
ers, two  native  and  two  Bernese  preachers  were 
elected,  but  they  were  below  mediocrity.  The 
three  parties,  those  opposed  to  the  Reformers  and 
Catholics  alike,  extreme  liberals,  those  working  for 
the  restoration  of  Catholicism,  and  those  friendly 
to  the  Reformers  involved  the  affairs  of  the  city 
in  confusion.  The  claim  of  right  of  Bern  to  act  as 
protector  if  not  dictator  of  Geneva  was  highly 
unpopular.  The  first  party  gradually  declined,  as 
they  proved  unable  to  check  the  tide  of  immorality 
and  disorder;  the  second  party  had  no  command- 
ing influence  after  the  crushing  letter  of  Calvin 
in  reply  to  that  of  Sadolet ;  the  third  party  kept 
on  insisting  upon  the  old  franchises  of  Geneva  as 
against  the  Bernese  claims,  and  gained  influence  as 
the  Catholics  lost  ground. 

In  the  early  months  of  1540,*  a  general  assembly 
of  citizens  resolved  to  restore  the  former  status. 
The  recall  of  Calvin  was  decided  upon  in  the  Coun- 


RETURN    TO    GeJNEVA.  115 

cil,  September  21,  1540.  Meanwhile,  private  ef- 
forts had  been  made  to  obtain  his  consent  to  return 
to  Geneva;  but  in  his  reply  to  Farel  he  said: 
"There  is  no  place  in  the  world  which  I  fear  more ; 
not  because  I  hate  it,  but  because  I  feel  unequal  to 
the  difficulties  which  await  me  there."  He  re- 
quested Farel  and  Viret  to  desist  from  their  efforts 
to  draw  him  back  to  the  city;  however,  he  added: 
"When  I  remember  that  in  this  matter  I  am  not 
my  own  master,  I  present  my  heart  as  a  sacrifice 
and  I  offer  it  up  to  the  Lord."  He  herein  con- 
sciously or  unwittingly  refers  to  his  seal ;  it  bears 
the  motto  to  which  he  gave  expression  in  his  let- 
ter, and  the  emblem  is  a  hand  presenting  a  heart  to 
God.  Petitions  and  even  deputations  were  for- 
warded to  Strassburg  to  complete  his  surrender  to 
the  duty  thus  urged  upon  him.  The  Registres  of 
Geneva  contain  numerous  records  during  the  month 
of  October  touching  the  recall  of  ''the  learned  and 
pious  Mr.  Calvin." 

The  Syndics  and  Council  wrote  him  an  appeal, 
which  it  is  worth  while  to  lay  upon  the  page  in  full : 

"Sir,  our  good  brother,  and  excellent  friend,  in  recom- 
mending ourselves  to  you  very  affectionately,  inasmuch 
as  we  are  perfectly  assured  that  your  desire  is  only  for 
the  increase  and  advancement  of  the  glory  and  honor  of 
God  and  of  His  holy  word,  on  the  part  of  our  small,  our 
great,  and  our  general  councils  (which  all  have  urgently 
urged  us  to  do  this),  we  pray  you  very  affectionately  to 
be  pleased  to  come  to  us,  and  return  to  your  former  part 
and  ministry;  and  we  hope,  with  the  assistance  of  God, 


ii6         John  Calvin:  The  Statesman. 

that  this  will  be  cause  of  great  good  and  fruit  for  the  aug- 
mentation of  the  holy  Gospel.     Our  people  are  very  desir- 
ous to  have  you.     And  we  will  so  arrange  matters  with 
you  that  you  shall  have  occasion  to  be  satisfied. 
Your  good  friends, 
The  Syndics  and  Council  of  Geneva." 
Geneva,  22nd,  Oct.  1540. 

The  incidents  of  Calvin's  recall  and  return  to 
Geneva  show  us  a  man  of  noble  purposes,  anxious 
to  do  his  highest  duty,  fearful  of  mistake,  seeking 
advice  from  many  friends,  delaying  his  acceptance 
of  the  invitation  until  it  could  no  longer  be  put 
off,  and  then  securing  the  best  results  of  the  ac- 
ceptance by  conditions  presented  to  him  and  al- 
lowed by  the  authorities,  as  worthy  of  the  man 
whom  they  had  exiled  and  now  discovered  they 
could  not  live  without.  The  letters  of  this  period 
as  given  by  Bonnet  reveal  the  man,  timid,  brave, 
just  to  himself  and  to  his  friends,  loving  Geneva, 
ambitious  for  God,  not  lacking  on  the  other  hand 
the  confidence  in  himself  without  which  no  man 
can  serve  his  day  to  the  full. 

Strassburg  protested  against  his  departure,  say- 
ing he  could  not  be  spared.  The  leaders  of  public 
opinion  in  Germany  and  Switzerland  expressed 
their  mind  that  the  fate  of  Geneva  was  wrapped  up 
in  that  of  evangelical  religion,  and  with  this  city 
went  Italy  and  France,  and  that  Calvin  was  the 
man  to  whom  they  might  well  look  fo*r  the  direc- 
tion of  their  destiny.  As  of  old,  Farel  thundered 
away:  "Will  you  wait  till  the  stones  call  thee?" 


Return  to  Gkne:va.  117 

Unable  to  resist  the  call  of  God,  as  he  had  now 
come  to  regard  it,  Calvin  left  Strassburg  in  the 
summer  of  1541,  and  went  forward  to  Geneva  es- 
corted by  a  mounted  herald.  The  city  was  on  the 
lookout  for  him.  There  was  talk  of  a  great  recep- 
tion, but  his  distaste  for  a  noisy  welcome  prevented 
any  demonstration  of  an  unusual  sort.  Yet  there 
was  general  rejoicing  when  on  September  13th  he 
reached  Geneva.  Three  days  later  he  wrote  to  his 
old  friend,  Farel :  ''Thy  wish  is  granted,  I  am  held 
fast  here.  May  God  give  His  blessing !"  The 
house  and  garden  which  was  provided  for  him  had 
belonged  to  a  canon  of  the  Cathedral,  and  was 
bought  by  the  authorities  of  Geneva  in  1543.  It 
was  only  a  few  steps  from  the  Church  of  St.  Peter, 
and  stood  on  the  site  of  the  present  Number  11 
Rue  de  Calvin.  The  original  house  has  been  re^ 
moved,  the  site  being  built  upon  anew  in  the 
eighteenth  century.  For  a  short  while  Calvin  lived 
in  the  house  adjoining  until  the  one  purchased  by 
the  Council  was  fitted  for  his  permanent  home, 
and  there  he  remained  until  his  death.  The  furnish- 
ing was  very  simple,  the  salary  was  set  at  five  hun- 
dred florins,  and  as  he  was  expected  to  entertain 
prominent  visitors,  he  was  voted  an  allowance  of 
wheat  and  wine.  The  salary  has  been  variously 
computed,  as  to  its  present  purchasing  power,  from 
fifty  to  fifteen  hundred  dollars,  but  by  the  latest 
French  author  of  the  life  of  Calvin,  as  not  exceed- 
ing one  thousand  dollars.^ 

iSee  fuU  note  in  Walker's  comment  on  Doumergue's  estimate, 
p.  264. 


ii8         John  Cai^vin:  The:  Statesman. 

On  the  very  day  of  his  arrival  Calvin  appeared 
by  agreement  before  the  Syndics  and  the  Council 
in  the  Town  Hall,  and  asked  for  the  appointment  of 
a  commission  of  six  to  draw  up  a  plan  for  Church 
government  .and  discipline.  This  was  done,  and 
the  task  immediately  taken  up  of  directing  the  re- 
ligious and  moral,  and  as  it  soon  followed,  the 
social,  life  of  Geneva.  Calvin  was  conciliatory, 
but  there  was  no  delay  in  the  prosecution  of  his 
scheme.  The  constitution,  or  Ordinances,  as  they 
were  styled,  went  up  to  the  Little  Council,  Septem- 
ber 26th,  to  the  Large  Council  November  9th,  and 
to  the  general  assembly  of  the  citizens  November 
20,  1 541. 

That  the  authorities  did  not  intend  to  take  Cal- 
vin as  a  ruler,  only  as  an  adviser,  is  apparent  in  the 
refusal  of  the  Little  Council  to  submit  to  the  min- 
isters the  changed  draft  before  it  went  to  the  Two 
Hundred.  Nevertheless  the  Ecclesiastical  Consti- 
tution of  1 54 1  is  in  marked  advance  beyond  the 
Articles  of  1537;  "not  indeed  quite  perfect,  but 
passable  considering  the  difficulty  of  the  times," 
remarked  Calvin.  The  Church  got  self-control, 
but  none  over  political  matters.  The  Church  se- 
cured an  effective  discipline  over  its  members  in 
matters  pertaining  to  doctrine  and  life,  thus  putting 
the  Church  of  Geneva  far  ahead  of  any  other  Prot- 
estant body  of  the  day. 

Calvin's  theory  of  the  Church,  and  of  the  State, 
and  of  the  relation  between  the  two  was  well  de- 
fined before  his  arrival;  his  mind  was  too  mature, 


Return  to  Gknkva.  119 

and  his  experience  too  thorough,  to  leave  any  doubt 
in  the  matter.  His  mind  was  rarely  architectonic 
in  character.  The  idea  of  a  Divine  Commonwealth, 
a  "Civitas  Dei,"  was  ever  before  him,  swaying  his 
thought  and  commanding  his  will.  In  contrasting 
Luther  with  Calvin,  Dr.  Fairbairn  says:  "Luther's 
aim  was  to  teach  a  true  soteriology,   Calvin's  to 

^  build  a  system  and  a  State  in  the  image  of  the  truth 
of  God."  The  distinction  between  the  "visible" 
and  the  "invisible"  Church  was  one  introduced  by 
the  Reformers.  By  this  they  meant  two  classes 
of  Christians  within  the  same  objective  communion. 
The  invisible  Church  is  in  the  visible,  as  kernel  in 
the  shell,  and  God  alone  knows  who  belong  to  the 
invisible  Church  and  are  to  be  saved.  Luther  had 
first  applied  the  term  "invisible"  to  the  true  Church 
at  the  disputation  of  Leipzig.  Yet  the  Reformed 
system  of  doctrine  was  compelled  to  admit  that 
there  is  possibility  of  salvation  beyond  the  boun- 
daries of  the  visible  Church.  Perhaps  none  was  so 
liberal  as  Zwingli  in  his  inclusion  of  all  the  -pious 
heathen  in  the  invisible  Church.  While  Calvin  did 
not  go  so  far  as  Zwingli  in  his  doctrine  of  election, 
yet  logically  the  extension  may  be  allowed.  For 
salvation  depends  upon  the  sovereign  grace  of  God, 
and  not  upon  any  objective  or  formal  means  of 
grace.     He  says  in  one  place:  "According  to  the 

•  secret  predestination  of  God,  there  are  many  sheep 
without  the  pale  of  the  Church,  and  many  wolves 
within  it." 


I20         John  Cai^vin:  The:  Statesman. 

Before  taking  up  in  detail  the  administrative 
measures  of  the  Ordinances^  it  will  be  well  to  push 
inquiry  still  further  into  the  significance  of  Calvin's 
purpose  to  recover  for  the  Church  whatever  of 
authority  it  had  lost  in  the  troublous  days  of  his 
absence  from  Geneva.  In  his  aim  he  drew  some- 
what near  to  that  of  the  Roman  Church  in  its  em- 
phasis upon  autonomy,  its  right  of  self-government. 
But  he  made  a  distinction;  for  while  the  Catholic 
used  the  word  "autonomy"  in  a  hierarchical  sense, 

•  Calvin  placed  the  power  in  the  hands  of  the  Chris- 
tian congregation.  And  while  he  did  not  succeed 
in  his  day  in  making  the  clergy  independent  of  State 
patronage,  he  taught  that  self-government  implied 
and  required  self-support.  The  I^utherans  allowed 
the  heavy  hand  of  the  secular  princes  to  indulge 
an  arbitrary  policy,  giving  the  congregations  of 
most  Lutheran  countries  of  Europe  no  voice  in  the 

/  election  of  their  pastors.  German  Switzerland  rec- 
ognized the  supreme  power  of  the  civil  government. 
In  theory,  the  Churches  established  by  Calvin 
claimed  independence  for  the  Church  in  all  spirit- 
ual matters.  The  sovereignty  of  the  Church  was 
inherent  in  its  membership.  His  argument  springs 
from  the  old  rule :  'Xet  him  who  is  to  rule  over  all, 
be  chosen  by  all."  Scotland,  and  then  America 
saw  the  full  fruition  of  this  planting.  He  contended 
that  the  bishops  and  the  presbyters  were  originally 
identical,  yet  did  not  refuse  to  accept  the  super- 
vision of  bishops,  as  in  England,  provided  the  Gos- 


Return  to  Geneva.  121 

pel  were  truly  preached.  More  important  than  the 
above  was  Calvin's  demand  that  the  laity  should 

»  share  in  Church  government  and  discipline.  Rome 
refused  to  laymen  rights  in  ecclesiastical  legisla- 
tion ;  Calvin  taught  the  priesthood  of  all  believers, 
and  gave  them  regular  duties  in  the  local  congre- 
gations, the  Synod  and  the  Council  of  the  Churches. 
In  approaching  Calvin's  theory  of  the  relation 
of  the  Church  to  the  State  we  find  difficulty.  He 
has  been  styled  a  theocrat.  He  did  indeed  aim  at 
the  sole  rule  of  Christ  in  Church  and  State,  but 
free  from  any  entanglement  between  the  two.  Cal- 
vin endeavored  to  distinguish  what  was  in  his  day 
greatly  confused,  the  difference  between  the  spir- 
itual and  the  secular  powers.  Each  was  to  be  in- 
dependent and  sovereign  in  its  own  sphere.  He 
himself  never  held  a  civil  office,  nor  did  he  allow 
the  ministers  to  be  eligible  to  the  magistracy.  The 
internal  affairs  of  the  Church  were  to  be  free  from 
the  interference  of  the  civil  authorities.     Yet  he 

>^.failed  to  separate  the  two  provinces;  rather  he 
dared  to  unite  them  as  far  as  their  unlike  functions 
would  permit.  In  practice  in  Geneva  the  two  were 
more  nearly  interdependent  than  in  theory,  and  the 
Reformed  Church  of  Geneva  was  an  established  or 
State  Church,  the  preachers  and  the  magistrates 
often  intermeddling  with  each  other.  "Discipline 
was  a  common  territory  for  both."     It  was  a  long 

.  distance  to  the  time  when  the  great  Italian,  Cavour, 
cried  out,  "A  free  Church  in  a  free  State." 


122         John  Cai^vin:  The  State^sman. 

The  reference  to  Italy,  so  many  ages  hampered 
by  the  anomaly  of  the  double  rule  of  the  Pope,  at 
once  prince  and  priest,  suggests  the  value  of  a 
swift  review  of  the  effort  of  the  papacy  to  bring 
the  world  to  its  way  of  thought  and  life. 

Both  the  true  and  the  false  rise  to  our  vision. 
There  was  first  the  scheme  and  the  failure  of  the 
Imperial  Church  under  Constantine  and  Theo- 
dosius.  The  world  was  not  ready  for  the  experi- 
ment, and  the  trial  could  be  only  partial.  The 
problem  in  its  entirety  was  not  grasped  by  its 
proposers.  Then  came  the  aim  and  the  failure  of 
the  Mediaeval  Church;  the  "fatal  dualism,"  that  of 
the  claim  to  both  spiritual  and  secular  power  balked 
its  most  desperate  zeal.  The  meaning  of  the  "king- 
dom of  God"  escaped  the  conception  of  the  clerical 
orders,  and  the  "Mediaeval  System,  long  hollowed 
out  and  destitute  of  spiritual  force,  was  blown  to 
pieces  by  the  Reformation." 

Nevertheless,  there  remained  the  idea  of  unity 
and  of  some  form  of  an  organized  social  system 
inspired  by  Christian  truth.  But  the  difference  be- 
tween the  formal  and  the  essential  unity  grew 
plainer  with  each  passing  decade  of  struggle  after 
the  ideal.  The  Mediaeval  Church  had  insisted  upon 
unity  to  the  hurt  of  the  individual,  whereas  the 
New  Testament  had  taught  that  the  Spirit  was  to 
work  first  in  the  person,  and  then  through  him  in 
the  community.  The  free  Churches,  not  the  tyrant 
Church,  were  in  its  long  and  glorious  perspective. 


RETURN   TO   Ge:nE;vA.  1 23 

The  unity  of  Christendom  must  recognize  the  free 
development  of  all  its  parts  working  with  unim- 
paired liberty  for  the  total  good.  Thus  the  task 
of  the  Reformation  was  to  light  all  the  branches  of 
the  mysterious  candlestick  of  the  Apocalypse.  But 
this  did  not  mean  that  the  work  of  the  Reformation 
was  mainly  destructive  of  previous  and  real  gains, 
nor  tending  to  the  disintegration  of  any  vital  forces, 
or  institution  worthy  of  longer  life.  Protestantism 
is  primarily  a  builder,  not  a  destroyer.  And  if  in 
its  earlier  days  it  assumed  the  form  and  exhibited 
the  might  of  a  deformer,  and  not  of  a  reformer, 
this  was  only  incidental.  Its  eye  was  ever  fixed 
upon  a  sounder  fabric,  grounded  upon  the  free 
consent  of  men.  The  history  of  its  spread  has  an- 
swered to  the  full  Comte's  habitual  scorn  of  Prot- 
estantism, on  the  ground  of  its  "purely  negative 
doctrine,"  and  ''the  anarchical  character  of  its  prin- 
ciples." For  when  we  sum  it  all  up,  we  find  the 
Reformation  due  to  a  positive  religious  conviction ; 
it  began  an  era  of  popular  enlightenment ;  it  lifted 
up  the  laity ;  it  awoke  the  national  spirit  in  Europe. 
On  the  Rhine  it  was  Luther  appealing  to  Germany 
to  assert  itself  against  the  Pope  on  the  Tiber;  on 
the  Thames  it  was  Latimer  and  Ridley  defying 
the  threats  and  fagots  of  the  fanatic  queen  inspired 
by  the  Italian  cardinal ;  the  Dutch  around  the  Zuy- 
der  Zee  shaking  off  the  tyranny  of  the  Spaniard; 
in  France  the  exiled  Huguenots  becoming  aliens 
to  their  native  land  rather  than  traitors  to  God. 


124         John  Cai^vin:  The  Statesman. 

In  no  other  way  could  the  "fiction  of  the  Empire 
and  the  yoke  of  the  Pope"  have  been  cast  aside. 
The  Reformers  were  not  rough  iconoclasts  of  a 
wholesome  social  order  or  of  a  pure  and  tender 
ecclesiastical  discipline.  They  were  not  unprac- 
tical nor  idle  dreamers,  but  those  who  lived  and 
died  to  make  their  dreams  come  true.  Their  lib- 
erty has  been  that  of  a  popular  constitution;  wit- 
ness England,  Scotland,  Holland,  Switzerland,  and 
America. 

The  trend  of  thought  to  John  Calvin  is  evident, 
and  its  realization  prior  to  his  day  in  at  least  one 
illustrious  instance  is  easily  recalled.  Calvin  did 
not  originate  the  notion,  the  achievement,  of  a 
Christian  city.  Every  reader  of  ''Romola"  who 
brings  any  degree  of  sympathy  to  the  study 
of  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century  in  Flor- 
ence must  have  some  insight  into  the  ideals 
and  the  source  of  pov/er  of  the  mighty  Re- 
former-Preacher of  San  Marco.  Savonarola 
forever  charms  and  does  not  tire  those  who 
still  cherish  the  hope  of  influencing  public  life  by 
Christian  motives.  In  an  age  which  recognized 
Roderick  Borgia  as  the  vicar  of  St.  Peter,  the  elo- 
quent monk,  sustained  by  a  noble  philosophy,  and 
at  the  same  time  a  fervent  follower  of  Christ,  came 
to  Florence  by  invitation  of  Lorenzo  de  Medici, 
and  for  awhile  seemed  to  cast  over  his  vast  talents 
a  benignant  spell.  But  under  the  splendid,  cruel 
rule  of  Eozenzo  virtue,  political  and  moral,  was 


Re:turn  to  Ge:ne:va.  125 

moribund.  To  some  the  alternative  lay  between 
ruthless  despotism  and  a  licentious  democracy.  But 
the  stout-hearted,  clear-brained  prophet  refused  to 
cherish  any  other  vision  than  that  of  Florence  as  a 
true  city  of  God,  and  after  the  death  of  Lorenzo 
and  the  expulsion  of  his  weak  son,  Piero,  Savon- 
arola became  the  dictator  of  Florence  (1494-1497). 
For  four  years  he  governed  the  city  justly,  and 
gained  good  terms  from  the  King  of  France.  But 
the  Pope  was  set  on  his  overthrow ;  the  Medicean 
party  yearned  for  the  "good  old  days,"  and  his 
course  was  soon  run,  as  he  had  prophesied.  The 
election  of  a  hostile  Singoria  was  followed  by  the 
papal  excommunication  and  condemnation  to  the 
cord  and  the  flame,  and  in  the  strangle  and  the 
affhes  ended  Savonarola's  attempt  to  create  a  Chris- 
tian city  on  the  banks  of  the  Arnp. 

From  the  monk  of  S^n  Marco  to  the  preacher 
of  St.  Pierre  is  less  than  forty  years.  On  the  other 
side  of  the  Alps  and  under  auspicious  skies  Calvin 
laid  the  foundation  of  the  public  life  of  Geneva  in 
religion.  He  drew  up  a  Confession  which  every 
one  was  required  to  sign.  Church  and  State  were 
not  identical,  but  they  were  not  separated.  In  his 
''Confessions"  Rousseau  tells  us  that  when  he  went 
to  Geneva  in  1754  it  was  necessary  for  him  to  sign 
.the  Confession  of  Faith  before  he  could  become  a 
citizen  of  the  city. 

If  it  is  inquired  how,  in  the  one  case  four  short 
years,  and  in  the  other  nearly  three  centuries,  swept 


126         John  Calvin:  Th^  Statesman. 

by,  marking  now  the  brief  and  now  the  unspent 
power  of  the  two  reformers,  the  answer  may  easily 
be  found.  Antitheses  do  not  always  separate  the 
grain  from  the  chaff,  but  there  is  much  truth  in  the 
old  statement  that  Catholicism  is  a  religion  of 
priests,  Lutheranism  of  theologians,  Calvinism  of 
the  believing  congregation.  In  his  emphasis  of  the 
solidarity  of  the  Church  Calvin  made  Geneva  a 
fair  rival  of  Rome,  and  in  his  effort  to  reform  the 
morals  of  the  city  he  wrought  out  a  discipline  as 
rigorous  for  the  glory  of  Geneva  as  any  that  Rome 
had  ever,  in  repressing  heresy,  fostered  to  her 
shame.  Yet  Calvin's  calm  disclaimer  of  any  pur- 
pose to  merge  the  State  and  the  Church  into  one  as 
an  executioner  of  law-breakers,  is  set  forth  in  his 
statement  that  the  Church  knows  no  penalty  for 
wrong  doing  save  exclusion  from  the  Lord's  Sup- 
per. ''For  the  Church  hath  not  the  power  of  the 
sword  to  punish  or  restrain,  no  empire  to  command, 
no  prison,  no  other  pains  which  the  magistrate  is 
wont  to  lay  upon  men."^  But  what  if,  is  the  im- 
mediate inquiry,  the  State  has  become  so  inter- 
penetrated with  the  passion  of  the  Church  for  re- 
form that  the  lines  of  cleavage  can  not  be  discerned, 
and  the  temptation  is  inevitable  to  make  out  of 
offenses  against  the  Church  crimes  against  the  civil 
order?  Plainly  we  shall  have  a  reign  of  terror, 
peculiar  but  explicable,  and  it  hideous  yet  tremend- 
ously effective.     When  the  adulterer  was  put  to 

1  Inst.  4.  II,  3. 


Return  to  Geneva.  127 

death,  and  the  unchaste  were  banished  or  drowned, 
Geneva  was  in  such  case  as  a  hundred  other  cities 
of  Europe,  Catholic  and  Protestant,  but  when  to 
laugh  at  a  sermon  of  Calvin  was  made  a  crime, 
the  honest  human  heart  cries  out  against  the  holi^ 
ness  which  is  secured  at  the  expense  of  freedom 
and  the  virtue  which  is  stamped  with  the  tyranny 
of  a  moral  police. 

It  is  evident  that  the  principles  of  Church  gov- 
ernment advocated  by  Calvin  led  to  persecution. 
He  was  not  different  from  his  age,  save  that  he 
calmly  and  without  retreat  or  hiding  accepted  all 
the  consequences  of  his  theory.  In  a  theocratic 
State  heresy  is  as  obnoxious  to  orthodoxy  as  an 
ordinary  crime  is  to  the  civil  law.  In  a  letter  to 
Somerset,  the  Protestant  Protector  of  England,  Cal- 
vin elaborates,  October  2.2.,  1548,  his  theory  of  the 
necessity  of  applying  force  against  heresy. 

*'From  what  I  understand,  my  Lord,  you  have  two 
kinds  of  rebels  who  have  risen  up  against  the  King  and 
the  State  of  the  realm.  The  one  are  fantastic  people,  who 
under  colour  of  the  gospel  would  cast  all  into  confusion; 
the  other,  obstinate  adherents  to  the  superstitions  of  the 
Roman  Anti-christ.  Both  alike  well  deserve  to  be  re- 
pressed by  the  sword  which  is  committed  to  you,  seeing 
that  they  attack  not  the  King  only,  but  God  who  has  seated 
him  upon  the  throne,  and  has  entrusted  to  you  the  protec- 
tion as  well  of  his  person  as  of  his  majesty." 


CHAPTER  VIII. 
THE  NEW  DISCIPLINE. 

John  Cai^vin  was  lawyer  as  well  as  preacher. 
His  legal  training  stood  him  in  good  stead  in  the 
organization  of  the  system  of  doctrine,  polity,  and 
discipline  for  Geneva.  His  stress  laid  upon  the 
inner  life,  intellectual  and  spiritual,  saved  him  from 
being  a  tyrant  after  the  order  of  Hildebrand.  As 
it  was,  he  did  not  escape  caricature,  censure,  scorn. 
But  he  succeeded  in  imposing  his  will  upon  a  peo- 
ple who  in  the  end  greatly  profited  by  his  coming, 
in  morals,  good  order,  intelligence,  influence  among 
neighbors,  and  renown.    How  did  he  do  it? 

In  the  application  of  the  general  principles  noted 
in  the  preceding  chapter,  Calvin  insisted  upon  mak- 
ing them  the  fundamental  law  of  the  city.  The  re- 
sult is  seen  in  the  ''Ecclesiastical  Ordinances," 
which  were  solemnly  ratified  January  2,  1542,  as 
the  Church  law  of  Geneva.  In  themselves  they  are 
an  interesting  milestone  of  progress,  and  in  ad- 
dition they  are  of  vast  concern  as  having  passed 
into  the  life  of  most  of  the  Reformed  and  Presby- 
terian Churches  of  the  Old  and  the  New  World. 
The  official  text  begins  with  the  following  words: 
128 


The;  New  DiscipunE.  129 

"In  the  name  of  God  Almighty,  we  the  Syndics,  Small 
and  Great  Councils  with  our  people  assembled  at  the  sound 
of  the  trumpet  and  the  great  clock,  according  to  our  an- 
cient customs,  have  considered  that  the  matter  above  all 
others  worthy  of  recommendation  is  to  preserve  the  doc- 
trine of  the  holy  gospel  of  our  Lord  in  its  purity,  to  pro- 
tect the  Christian  Church,  to  instruct  faithfully  the  youth, 
and  to  provide  a  hospital  for  the  proper  support  of  the 
poor, — all  of  which  can  not  be  done  without  a  definite 
order  and  rule  of  life,  from  which  every  estate  may  learn 
the  duty  of  its  office.  For  this  reason  we  have  deemed  it 
v/ise  to  reduce  the  spiritual  government,  such  as  our  Lord 
has  shown  us  and  instituted  by  His  Word,  to  a  good  form 
to  be  introduced  and  observed  among  us.  Therefore  we 
have  ordered  and  established  to  follow  and  to  guard  in  our 
city  and  territory  the  following  ecclesiastical  polity,  taken 
from  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ." 

Calvin's  effort  was  to  bring  to  the  front  two 
mutually  corrective  powers — the  clergy  and  the 
laity.  Nowhere  else  in  all  history  have  the  clergy 
been  so  prominent  and  influential  as  in  the  Church 
of  Geneva.  The  distinction  made  by  Calvin  be- 
tween the  extraordinary  officers  of  the  Church  and 
the  ordinary  is  worth  remembering,  for  the  reason 
that  the  former  can  not  be  regulated  by  law,  and 
no  directions  are  to  be  found  in  the  Ordinances  for 
them.  The  distinction,  however,  is  made  in  the 
Institutes,  and  under  the  first  head  are  found  Apos- 
tles, Prophets,  and  Evangelists ;  and  under-  the 
second  head  are  Pastors,  Teachers,  Ancients,  and 
Deacons.  Pastors  are  Bishops  and  Ancients  are 
Lay-Elders.  In  his  elaboration  of  the  duties  of 
9 


I30         John  Calvin:  Thi:  S'Tatesman. 

these  various  classes  Calvin  exhibited  the  analytic 
skill  of  a  lawyer  in  the  days  of  Justinian,  and  gave 
to  his  "code"  a  permanent  character  which  stood 
firm  in  the  court  of  Scotland  and  the  frontiers  of 
America  with  equal  ease  and  force.  It  would  be 
tedious  to  recite  the  many  specifications  of  service 
which  filled  the  minds  of  Calvin's  friends  with  pro- 
found concern,  and  the  hearts  of  his  foes  with  pro- 
founder  disgust,  but  one  must  know  somewhat  of 
the  working  plan  of  the  ''Ordinances"  in  order  to 
appreciate  the  mind  and  will  of  Calvin  and  their 
effect  upon  Geneva. 

The  "Pastors"  are  to  "preach  the  Word  of  God, 
to  instruct,  to  admonish,  to  exhort,  and  reprove  in 
public  and  private,  to  administer  the  Sacraments, 
and  jointly  with  the  'elders'  to  exercise  discipline." 
Pastors  are  such  only  after  being  called,  examined, 
ordained,  or  installed.  Weekly  conferences  are  to 
be  held  for  mutual  aid.  Strict  discipline  is  to  be 
exercised  over  the  ministers,  and  a  dozen  or  more 
vices  and  sins  are  named  which  can  not  be  toler- 
ated among  them.  The  pastors  are  to  preach  twice 
on  Sunday  and  to  catechise  the  children,  and  to 
preach  three  times  during  the  week.  Teachers  are 
to  instruct  believers  in  sound  doctrine.  They  are 
distinguished  from  pastors,  in  that  they  have  no 
official  concern  with  discipline,  nor  can  they  ad- 
minister the  sacraments.  The  highest  type  of 
teacher  was  the  theological  professor.  The  "An- 
cients" or  lay  elders,  were  an  important  feature  of 


Thk  New  Discipune.  131 

the  "Ordinances,"  perhaps  the  most  original  con- 
tribution thereto. 

It  is  this  name  and  office  that  have  given  to  the 
Presbyterian  Church  its  name  and  type  of  poHty. 
Yet  it  may  be  doubted  if  some  of  the  modern  elders 
would  recognize  themselves  in  the  following  state- 
ment of  duties: 

"The  office  of  the  elders  is  to  watch  over  the  conduct 
of  every  individual,  to  admonish  lovingly  those  whom  they 
see  doing  wrong  or  leading  an  irregular  life.  When  there 
is  need,  they  should  lay  the  matter  before  the  body  de- 
puted to  inflict  paternal  discipline  (i.  e.,  the  Consistory), 
of  which  they  are  members.  VA-s  the  Church  is  organized, 
it  is  best  that  the  elders  be  chosen,  two  from  the  small 
council,  four  from  the  council  of  sixty,  and  six  from  the 
council  of  two  hundred  (referring  to  the  bodies  constitut- 
ing the  city  government)^  they  should  be  men  of  good 
life  and  honest,  withoutreproach  and  beyond  suspicion, 
above  all  God-fearing  and  endowed  with  spiritual  pru- 
dence. And  they  should  be  so  chosen  that  they  be  distrib- 
uted in  each  quarter  of  the  city,  so  that  they  can  have  an 
eye  on  everything." 

The  "deacons"  are  to  have  care  of  the  poor  and 
sick,  and  to  attend  to  the  hospitals.  Begging  is  to 
be  prevented  by  their  oversight.  The  "Ordinances" 
give  directions  touching  baptism,  which  is  to  be 
performed  in  the  Church,  touching  the  Lord's  Sup- 
per, to  be  administered  once  a  month  in  one  of  the 
Churches,  and  at  Easter,  Pentecost,  and  Christmas, 
and  contain  regulations  about  marriages,  burials, 
and  other  concerns  of  a  Christian  community.    The 


132         John  Calvin:  Th^  Statesman. 

Ministers  and  Ancients  are  to  meet  once  a  week, 
on  Thursday,  to  consider  the  state  of  the  Church 
and  to  administer  discipHne. 

The  executive  bodies  of  the  Church  are  two. 
First,  there  is  the  Venerable  Company,  containing 
all  the  pastors  of  the  Republic  of  Geneva,  a  purely 
clerical  body,  and  lacking  political  authority.  It 
was  entrusted  with  the  supervision  of  all  matters 
that  concerned  the  Church  alone,  especially  the  edu- 
cation, election,  and  installation  of  ministers.  Yet 
even  in  this  it  depended  upon  the  civil  authority 
and  the  congregation  for  final  sanction  of  its  acts. 
In  the  second  place  is  the  Consistory,  or  Presby- 
tery, composed  of  clergymen  and  laymen,  a  far 
more  influential  body  than  the  Venerable  Company. 
In  it  State  and  Church  are  united.  The  head  of 
this  body  is  the  Syndic.  The  laymen  are  in  the 
majority  and  elected  annually,  the  ministers  being 
a  more  fixed  element  though  a  minority.  The  real 
ruler  of  this  body  was  Calvin,  presiding  only  a  few 
times  as  an  informal  chairman,  yet  as  has  been  said 
while  he  was  not  president,  he  was  the  soul  of  the 
Consistory. 

The  two  principles  to  which,  to  quote  Guizot,^ 
Calvin  attached  the  highest  importance,  ''I  might 
almost  call  them  his  two  supreme  passions,"  were 
first,  the  distinction  between  religious  and  civil 
society ;  i.  e.,  between  two  societies,  each  independ- 
ent in  its  own  domain,  but  giving  each  other  mutual 


1  St.  lyouis  and  Calvin,  p.  259. 


The;  New  Discipune.  i33 

support;  second,  the  discipline  of  all  members  of 
Church  who  were  subject  to  ecclesiastical  power, 
and  in  extreme  cases  handed  to  the  civil  power. 
The  constitution  formed  for  the  Christian  Church 
of  Geneva  was,  "to  a  certain  extent,  both  liberal 
and  cautious,  and  like  the  civil  constitution  of  the 
Christian  Genevan  State,  it  was  republican."  The 
Consistory  has  been  called  a  Star  Chamber.  But 
it  was  limited  to  the  use  of  the  spiritual  sword. 
Civil  punishments  fell  to  the  Council.  To  the  min- 
isters of  Zurich  Calvin  wrote,  November  26,  1553: 
"The  Consistory  has  no  civil  jurisdiction,  but  only 
the  right  to  reprove  according  to  the  will  of  God, 
and  its  severest  punishment  is  excommunication." 
Yet  it  was  not  till  after  the  victory  over  the  Liber- 
tines in  1555  that  the  Council  conceded  to  the  Con- 
sistory its  claim  of  right  of  excommunication.  This 
throws  light  upon  the  long  struggle  of  Calvin  to 
gain  for  the  Church  its  highest  rights  of  self-gov- 
ernment. 

Summarily,  the  gains  made  by  Calvin  for  the 
Church  were  notable ;  authority  for  her  ministers ; 
their  ordination  by  ministers ;  lay  representation, 
by  elders ;  excommunication  of  persistent  offenders ; 
and  in  the  last  resort,  by  a  spiritual  court  alone,  the 
Consistory.  As  the  society  of  Geneva  included  all 
baptized  persons,  thus  giving  to  the  Church  over- 
sight in  matters  concerning  errors  in  doctrine  and 
sins  against  the  peace  of  the  society,  it  was  the 
theory  of  Calvin  that   State  and  Church   should 


134         John  Calvin:  Th^  Statesman. 

be  mutually  helpful,  both  in  correcting  and  chas- 
tising offenders.  It  was  not  without  a  severe  strug- 
gle with  the  Little  Council  that  Calvin  won  his 
victory  for  the  rights  of  the  Consistory.  In  a 
classic  paragraph  he  drew  the  line  between  the 
civil  and  the  ecclesiastical  authorities : 

"That  all  this  (i.  e.,  discipline)  shall  be  done  in  such 
fashion  that  the  ministers  shall  have  no  civil  jurisdiction 
and  shall  use  none  but  the  spiritual  sword  of  the  Word 
of  God  as  Saint  Paul  directs  them;  and  that  the  authority 
of  the  government  and  of  ordinary  justice  shall  in  no  way 
be  diminished  by  the  Consistory,  but  that  civil  authority 
shall  remain  unimpaired.  And  in  particular,  where  it  shall 
be  necessary  to  make  some  punishment  or  constrain  the 
parties,  the  ministers  with  the  Consistory,  having  heard 
the  parties  and  made  remonstrances  and  admonitions  as 
shall  be  fitting,  shall  report  all  to  the  Council,  which  shall 
deliberate  on  their  report  and  order  and  render  judgment 
according  to  the  merits  of  the  case." 

In  the  administration  of  discipline  there  was  a 

most  vigorous   impartiality,  no   sex,   rank,   person 

being  considered.     The  eyes  of  the  elders   were 

everywhere.     Every   unseemly   act   was   reported. 

'The  following  incidents,  taken  from  the  records  of 

\  the  Registers,  will  present  both  the  humor  and  the 

'^horror   of   life   under   the   new   regime.      Several 

women,  among  them  the  wife  of  the  Captain-Gen- 

y  eral,  were  sent  to  jail,  for  dancing ;  Bonivard,  the 

\  hero  of  the  dungeon  of  Chillon,  and  the  friend  of 

j  Calvin,  was  summoned  before  the  Council  for  play- 

\  ing  at  dice  with  the  poet,  Clement  Marot,  for  a 


The;  Ne:w  Discipune;.  135 

quart  of  wine ;  three  men  who  had  laughed  during  ^ 
the  sermon  were  imprisoned  for  three  days;  three     1 
children,    for    staying   outside   the   church   to   eat    / 
cakes,  were  punished;  a  boy  was  whipped  for  call-   / 
ing  his  mother  a  "she-devil;"  a  girl  was  beheaded 
for  striking  her  parents.    Cruel  penalties  these ;  but 
the  Middle  Ages  had  not  yet  withdrawn  their  black 
shadows  from  the  city  of  Geneva,  nor  yet  did  the 
enlightenment  of  the  Reformation  lift  the  gloom 
from  Europe  for  more  than  two  centuries  after 
the  death  of  Calvin.     Witchcraft,  blasphemy  and 
heresy  were  as  bad  as  lying,  fornication,  and  mur- 
der, for  generations  after  the  days  of  the  great 
reformer. 

There  were  in  the  years  1558  and  1559  four 
hundred  and  fourteen  cases  recorded  upon  the 
pages  of  the  Register  of  the  Consistory.  It  may 
seem  very  ridiculous  to  many,  and  simply  the  rea- 
son for  buffoonery  to  others,  yet  again  to  others  a 
hateful  fact  of  civilization,  but  to  the  student  of 
history,  it  will  be  just  as  well  to  take  them  as  rep- 
resenting what  one  has  called  a  "disclosure,  in  un- 
dress, of  human  character  and  actions  which  the 
lofty  philosophic  generalities  of  history  have  too 
much  the  power  to  control  or  disguise."  We  must 
deal  with  them  as  a  fact.  Then  again,  if  we  are 
inclined  to  find  the  masculine  character  and  grand 
aims  of  Calvin  "frittered"  by  attention  to  such 
minutiae,  we  should  remember  that  only  in  their 
applications  may  we  hope  to  discover  the  meaning 


136         John  Cai^vin:  Th^  Statesman. 

of  principles.  Whenever  a  refined  intellectualism 
withdraws  itself  into  the  recesses  of  art  and  letters, 
and  cultivates  a  fastidious  sense  in  its  contact  with 
real  life,  its  "hall  mark"  of  exclusiveness  will  be 
found  to  be  a  mere  brand  of  inability  to  do  the 
world's  work.  For,  as  it  was  in  the  movement  from 
the  Renaissance  to  the  Reformation,  when  Erasmus 
complained  of  the  damage  Luther  was  doing  to 
letters,  and  men  of  the  Renaissance  turned  with  dis- 
gust from  men  of  the  Reformation,  the  same  old 
story  is  repeated,  and  criticism  wastes  itself  away 
in  its  whining  challenge  to  the  genius  of  construc- 
tion which  is  out  in  the  world  intensely  concerned 
with  human  affairs,  and  in  the  main,  for  their 
good. 

That  Calvin's  system  proved  a  serious  check  to 
personal  liberty  goes  without  saying,  and  that  it 
provoked  bitter  opposition  we  know  well  enough. 
But  it  changed  the  face  of  life  in  Geneva.  If  the 
people  woke,  and  ate,  and  toiled,  and  went  to  bed, 
under  a  sort  of  cut-and-dried  ethics,  they  yet  illus- 
trated what  could  come  of  obedience  to  a  noble 
ideal  of  life,  strenuous,  intellectual,  and  pure, 
though  imposed  by  a  masterful  will,  and  not  always 
welcomed  by  the  populace.  A  French  refugee  one 
day  exclaimed  to  a  peasant:  *'How  delightful  it 
is  to  see  this  lovely  liberty  in  your  city!"  The 
peasant  repHed:  "Lovely  liberty!  we  were  once 
obliged  to  go  to  mass;  now  we  are  obliged  to  go 
to  sermon."  However,  the  people  grew  in  intel- 
ligence by  the  use  of  the  Catechisms,  and  the  priv- 


The  New  Discipune.  137 

ileges  of  the  schools.  Good  order  and  social  purity 
followed  in  the  wake  of  Calvin's  severe  discipline. 
People  submitted  who  would  otherwise  have  thrown 
off  the  yoke,  had  there  been  a  less  virile  will  in 
the  chief  pastor  or  a  less  deliberate  purpose  in  the 
Council  to  make  a  model  city  of  Geneva.  If  Lib- 
erty suffered  somewhat,  Good  Order  was  en- 
throned. 

It  took  ten  years  of  constant  and  vigilant  po- 
lice oversight  combined  with  moral  and  spiritual 
education  to  secure  to  Calvin  his  triumph  over  the 
intrigues  of  parties  and  the  hatred  of  base  born 
men.  From  1545  to  1555  he  felt  the  utmost  venom 
of  their  opposition.  At  one  time  he  almost  de- 
spaired and,  December  14,  1547,  wrote  to  Farel: 
"Affairs  are  in  such  a  state  of  confusion  that  I 
despair  of  being  able  longer  to  retain  the  Church, 
at  least  by  my  own  endeavors."  His  opponents 
were  of  the  same  crowd  who  drove  him  away  in 
1538,  and  though  they  afterwards  submitted,  and 
in  the  case  of  one  or  two,  even  joined  in  the  invi- 
tation for  his  return,  yet  under  the  fretting  of  his 
harsh  discipline  they  began  serious  and  offensive 
resistance.  They  nicknamed  him  "Cain,"  and 
named  dogs  after  him;  they  threatened  him  in 
the  pulpit,  and  fired  guns  off  under  his  windows ; 
even  trying  on  one  occasion  to  wrest  from  his  hands 
the  sacred  elements  at  the  Eucharist.  Only  an 
extraordinary  man  could  have  resisted  the  pres- 
sure. 


138         John  Calvin:  The:  State^sman. 

The  first  victim  of  the  new  discipline  was 
Jacques  Gruet  who  suffered  death  for  sedition  and 
blasphemy.  Calvin's  account  of  him  as  a  "scurvy 
fellow"  is  justified  by  the  facts.  He  would  have 
been  obnoxious  in  any  other  decent  community. 
A  libel  which  he  had  attached  to  Calvin's  pulpit 
in  St.  Peter's  Church  led  to  his  arrest  by  order 
of  the  Council.  He  was  condemned  for  moral, 
religious,  and  political  offenses,  and  after  having 
been  inhumanly  tortured  every  day  for  a  month, 
was  beheaded  on  the  26th  of  July,  1547.  The 
fashion  of  the  times  in  dealing  with  criminals  was 
fiercely  harsh.  The  next  to  suffer  from  the  iron 
discipline  was  Ami  Perrin,  a  popular  leader  of 
the  patriotic  party.  He  had  been  influential  in 
recalling  Calvin,  and  for  a  time  had  supported  the 
reform  movement,  but  what  with  his  vanity,  pre- 
tense, and  theatric  airs  he  well  earned  the  title 
that  fell  with  biting  energy  from  Calvin's  pen: — 
* 'stage-emperor"  who  played  now  ''Caesar  comi- 
cus,"  and  then  "Caesar  tragicus."  His  wife,  Fran- 
cesca,  was  according  to  Calvin's  word  a  "prodig- 
ious fury."  She  excelled  in  revelry  and  the  swing 
of  an  abusive  tongue.  As  the  maxim  advises 
against  quarreling  with  a  woman,  it  would  be  bet- 
ter for  the  fame  of  Calvin's  wisdom  if  he  had  not 
measured  tongues  with  one  who  is  admitted  by 
Audin  to  have  been  "excitable,  choleric,  fond  of 
pleasure,  and  enamoured  of  dancing."  She,  her 
husband,  and  her  father  Favre,  were  put  in  prison 


The  Ndw  Discipline:.  139 

for  a  few  weeks.  The  father  refused  to  apologize, 
the  husband  confessed  his  wrong,  but  it  is  not  as- 
certained that  the  "fury"  became  penitent.  Calvin 
told  the  family  that  as  long  as  they  stayed  in  Ge- 
neva they  must  obey  the  laws  though  every  one 
of  them  wore  a  diadem. 

Thenceforward  Perrin  led  in  the  opposition  to 
Calvin.  On  his  return  from  Paris  whither  he  had 
gone  as  ambassador,  he  was  indicted  for  treason, 
having  told  the  French  government  that  French 
troops  could  be  stationed  at  Geneva  to  hold  off 
Germany,  and  was  expelled  from  the  Council.  The 
Libertines  ^  were  furious  and  a  clash  occurred  in 
the  Senate  House,  in  the  midst  of  which  Calvin 
entered,  unarmed,  and,  at  the  risk  of  his  life, 
calmed  the  tumult.  Even  his  chief  detractor, 
Audin,  in  his  dramatic  account  of  the  mo"b,  of  the 
''fixed"  eye  of  Calvin,  and  of  his  amazing  elo- 
quence, says:  "The  Libertines  who  had  shown 
themselves  so  bold  when  it  was  a  question  of 
destroying  some  front  of  a  Catholic  edifice,  over- 
turning some  saint's  niche,  or  throwing  down  an 
old  wooden  cross  weakened  by  age,  trembled  like 
women  before  this  man,  who  in  fact,  on  this  occa- 
sion exhibited  something  of  the  Homeric  heroism."  ^ 
For  awhile  Geneva  rested  under  a  truce  be- 
tween the  contending  parties.  Indeed  Calvin  was 
put  on  the  defensive.     The  Council  censured  him 

iThe  name  "Libertine"  was  a  nickname  for  the  party  opposed 
to  Calvin,  yet  it  was  not  contemporary  with  him. 
2 Calvin,  Audin,  p.  394. 


140         John  Cai^vin:  The  Statesman. 

for  saying  in  a  letter  to  Viret  that  the  Genevese 
"under  pretense  of  Christ  wanted  to  rule  without 
Christ,"  and  that  he  had  to  fight  their  "hypocrisy." 
The  quiet  behavior  of  Perrin  gave  him  an  advan- 
tage and  he  was  elected  first  Syndic,  which  position 
he  held  during  the  trial  of  Servetus,  voting  against 
the  death  sentence.  After  1553  the  friends  of  Cal- 
vin gained  the  supremacy  of  the  Council,  and  there 
would  have  been  little  more  trouble  save  that  Per- 
rin and  some  of  his  intimates  were  charged  with 
laying  a  diabolical  plot  to  murder  all  foreigners  on 
a  Sunday  during  Church  services.  There  is  no 
likelihood  that  such  a  plot  could  have  been  proved, 
yet  the  attending  circumstances,  a  street  riot,  en- 
abled the  Council  to  bring  Perrin  to  trial  and  to 
convict  him  of  guilt  in  the  case.  Fortunately  for 
him,  he  fled  Geneva  in  time,  and  though  condemned 
to  death  and  his  estates  confiscated  he  escaped 
the  deadly  wrath  of  the  Council. 

Pierre  Ameaux  was  a  member  of  the  Two  Hun- 
dred; "a  man  of  the  bar-room  with  a  wicked 
tongue  and  a  soul  destitute  of  energy."  His  abuse 
of  Calvin  at  a  drinking  bout  occasioned  his  arrest, 
and  his  trial  resulted  in  his  conviction,  the  penalty 
being  that  he  should  walk  the  streets  in  his  shirt, 
carry  a  lighted  torch  in  his  hands,  and  sue  for 
pardon. 

The  case  which  brought  Calvin  face  to  face 
with  the  Council  and  seriously  imperiled  his  cause 
was  that  of  Berthelier,  the   debauchee  son  of  a 


The  New  Discipline.  141 

worthy  patriot.  He  was  secretary  of  the  Council, 
and  yet  was  excommunicated  by  the  Consistory  for 
his  offenses.  At  first  the  Council  accepted  the 
decision  of  the  Consistory,  but  later  supported 
Berthelier.  Calvin  was  thus  forced  to  submit  to 
the  Council,  or  to  run  the  risk  of  a  second  expul- 
sion, or  to  bring  the  Council  to  his  way  of  think- 
ing. On  the  Sunday  following  the  absolution  of 
Berthelier  by  the  Council,  he  declared  at  the  close 
of  the  sermon,  when  about  to  administer  the  Sac- 
rament: "I  will  lay  down  my  life  ere  these  hands 
shall  reach  forth  the  sacred  things  of  God  to 
those  who  have  been  branded  as  His  despisers." 
Perrin,  who  had  some  respect  for  the  character  of 
the  hour  and  the  man,  or,  it  may  be  for  the  reason 
that  he  feared  an  outbreak,  advised  Berthelier  to 
absent  himself  from  the  Eucharist.  The  magnifi- 
cent courage  of  Calvin  carried  the  day,  and  the 
storm  blew  to  its  end  in  the  plot  above  mentioned 
in  which  Berthelier  and  Perrin  fled  to  avoid 
execution.     And  Libertinism  was  dead  in  Geneva. 

Thenceforward  Geneva  went  forward  along  the 
lines  of  Calvin's  doctrine  and  discipline,  becoming 
more  intelligent  and  moral  and  law-abiding,  clean, 
prosperous,  and  famous. 

The  'Ecclesiastical  Ordinances"  of  the  Church 
of  Geneva  deserve  our  sympathetic  attention,  for 
we  have  before  us  not  the  code  of  a  single  town 
of  small  consequence  on  the  confines  of  Switzer- 
land, but  the  "one  form  of  Church  polity  which  best 


142         John  Cai^vin:  The  Statesman. 

expresses  the  spirit  of  the  Reformation."  There 
was  a  directness  in  the  aim  of  the  Reformers 
throughout  Europe  that  found  a  congenial  soul  in 
the  Genevan  code.  The  discipline  of  Geneva  fol- 
lowed hard  upon  every  assertion  of  individual  lib- 
erty. Scotland  got  its  reformation,  Holland  its 
emancipation,  England  the  brief  but  brilliant  reign 
of  Calvin's  faith  and  discipline,  and  France  its 
sixty  years  of  Huguenot  struggle  against  the  royal 
authority,  direct  from  the  source  in  Geneva.  The 
contrast  between  the  three  Frenchmen,  contempo- 
raries at  Paris  before  1535,  puts  the  case  in  a  nut- 
shell; Rabelais  wasted  individualism,  Loyola 
crushed  individualism,  Calvin  educated  individual- 
ism. Calvinism  was  very  sombre,  even  forbidding 
at  times,  yet  it  did  not  seek  its  pleasures  in  the 
license  of  the  tavern,  or  the  chamber  of  inquisi- 
tion, but  in  the  school  room,  the  home,  the  church. 
It  made  itself  very  ridiculous  according  to  our 
modern  way  of  seeing  things,  by  insisting  upon 
observance  of  trifles,  by  exiling  innocent  fun,  by 
suppressing  the  humorist,  and  by  jailing  the  clown. 
What  then?  It  had  a  huge  task  set  by  the  times, 
and  the  joker  was  not  the  man  to  lead  Protestant- 
ism against  the  terribly  repressive  energy  of  the 
Jesuit,  of  Spain,  of  the  Inquisition.  The  odds  were 
all  against  Geneva  in  the  impending  conflict.  Cal- 
vinism was  tending  to  gather  to  itself  all  the  moral 
worth  to  be  found  anywhere  in  the  scattered  bits 
Protestantism.     Its   self-denial    and   sincerity,    its 


Th^  Ne:w  Discipune.  143 

clear-cut  statement  of  problems  and  their  solution, 
its  vision  and  its  passion,  all  got  recognition  and 
begot  victory.  The  tiny  band  was  not  in  all  re- 
gards polished,  or  gracious.  Its  members  used 
bold  speech  to  princes  and  w^ere  afraid  only  of 
God.  They  v^ere  understood.  They  hurt  feelings, 
but  they  conquered.  They  may  not  have  been  om- 
niscient,  but  they  were  invincible. 

In  dealing  with  his  little  world  whose  life  was 
to  spread  to  Holland,  to  England,  to  America,  Cal- 
vin did  not  try  to  imitate  Plato  with  his  ''paper- 
republic,"  but  with  tremendous  practical  effort,  by 
some  mistakes,  and  by  much  that  was  masterful, 
his  desires  were  achieved.  He  aimed  to  establish  a 
real  rather  than  to  paint  a  virtuous  society.  And 
what  is  to  the  point,  he  succeeded.  He  did  what 
Catholicism  in  the  Middle  Ages  had  failed  to  do. 
He  did  what  early  Protestantism  had  likewise 
failed  to  do.  In  the  first  case,  the  individual  had 
been  compelled  to  surrender  his  understanding  to 
the  Church,  and  to  bend  his  conscience  and  will 
to  priest  and  prince ;  the  revolution  of  Protestant- 
ism had  failed  to  fully  correct  the  error.  For  while 
it  relieved  outward  restraint,  it  yet  did  not  suc- 
ceed in  regenerating  the  forces  of  action. 

Calvin  taught  the  personal  soul  its  rights,  and 
its  obligations,  as  well;  he  tried  by  simple  and  it 
may  be  admitted,  by  almost  barbarous  legislation, 
to  incite  men  to  achieve  free  obedience.  This  may 
appear  strange  to  assert,  yet  to  one  who  has  any 


144         John  Cai^vin:  The:  Statesman. 

realization  of  the  significance  of  the  epoch  of 
which  we  write,  it  ought  to  be  credible,  as  one  has 
said:  that  "Government  at  Geneva  was  not  police, 
but  education;  self-government  mutually  enforced 
by  equals  on  each  other."  At  any  rate,  the  expe- 
riment was  heralded  throughout  Protestant  Eu- 
rope, and  men  flocked  to  the  little  city  by  the  blue 
lake  to  see  what  power  of  divination  had  descended 
upon  earth  that  could  so  change  the  face  of  a 
society  and  preserve  its  members  from  splitting  up 
into  many  sects,  for  this  was  the  peril  of  Protestant- 
ism. The  rising  might  of  the  Inquisition,  the  swift 
spread  of  Jesuitism,  and  the  new  confidence  of 
Rome  were  sufficient  to  demand  of  all  who  had 
turned  to  the  new  faith  a  scrutinizing  search  for 
some  mightier  preservative,  some  defiant  propa- 
gandism  before  which  nothing  then  or  since  known 
could  make  headway.  The  more  effective  spread 
of  Calvinism  as  over  against  that  of  Lutheranism 
is  proof  that  the  larger  stream  had  taken  to  itself 
the  power  of  the  smaller  one.  Save  where  national 
issues  prevented,  Calvinism  overbore  its  elder  ally, 
and  where  the  former  failed  to  propagate  itself 
Calvinism  rose  again  and  again,  strong  with  its 
peculiar  strength.  It  possessed  a  magical  might, 
like  all  truly  great  movements  in  history,  more 
unsubduable  than  its  adherents  knew  themselves. 
It  animated  the  followers  of  Knox,  the  cavalry  of 
Cromwell,  and  the  exiles  in  the  cabin  of  the 
Mayflower. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

CALVIN  AND  SERVETUS. 

Since  that  fateful  morning  In  October,  1553, 
when  Servetus  was  led  from  prison  to  the  gates 
of  the  City  Hall  to  hear  the  Chief  Syndic  pronounce 
his  sentence,  and  fell  upon  his  knees  crying  out: 
"The  sword !  in  mer<:y !  and  not  the  fire !  Or  I  may 
lose  my  soul  in  despair," — history  has,  especially 
of  late  years,  been  doing  the  poor  victim  the 
justice  of  fuller  discussion  and  defense  than  it  has 
accorded  to  any  man  connected  with  the  Reforma- 
tion. Such  is  the  judgment  of  one  of  the  calmest 
of  Protestant  historians.^  Servetus  has  not  lacked 
able,  even  enthusiastic  apologists.  The  tragedy 
has  been  dramatized.  Not  sympathy,  but  justice, 
has  lifted  the  martyr  into  a  fairer  court  of  trial 
than  he  was  allowed  to  enter  in  Geneva,  has  taken 
off  his  chains,  and  given  him  a  sympathetic  hear-  ^|^ 
ing.  The  approval  of  Calvin's  act  by  his  intimate  ^^ 
friends  in  the  sixteenth  century  has  been  sup- 
planted by  the  severe  condemnation  of  the  act  by 
his  friends  in  the  twentieth  century.^ 


ISchaflf,  Swiss  Ref.,  p.  686. 
2  Dr.  C.  H.  Parkhurst. 

lo  145 


146         John  Cai^vin:  The:  Statesman. 

The  year  1553  marked  the  ebb  tide  of  Calvin's 
influence  in  Geneva,  and  this  not  after  but  before 
the  coming  of  Servetus.  His  cause  was  in  hard 
lines.  The  parties  contending  for  mastery  in  the 
city  were  evenly  balanced,  and  it  looked  at  one  time 
as  if  the  scales  were  about  to  tip  against  Calvin's 
cause.  When  the  Spaniard  appears  on  the  scene 
he  runs  into  a  trial  which  was  of  more  than  doc- 
trinal import,  and  "was  to  test  the  relative  strength 
of  the  rival  parties  in  Geneva,  and  the  permanence 
of  Calvin's  control."  ^  Yet  the  long  struggle  noted 
above,  lasting  ten  years,  did  not  reach  its  end  until 
it  had  spotted  the  fair  fame  of  the  chief  contest- 
ant, and  left  the  friends  of  Calvin  and  of  the 
Reformation  with  a  burden  of  explanation  hard  to 
carry. 

No  two  men  of  the  period  ofifer  to  the  reader 
so  many  points  of  both  likeness  and  contrast.  Both 
men  were  precocious  in  their  youth,  men  of  posi- 
tive genius,  foes  of  Rome,  bold  in  opposing  her 
reliance  upon  institutionalism,  and  in  attempting 
her  reform,  both  prolific  writers,  both  versatile, 
both  confident  of  a  divine  call,  both  dying  in  the 
prime  of  life;  but  the  one  was  constructive,  the 
other  destructive ;  the  one  founder  of  a  system 
still  abiding,  the  other  without  a  congregation  to 
carry  his  name  forward ;  the  one  filling  the  shelves 
of  scholars  of  many  languages  with  his  books,  the 
other  scarcely  known  in  his  own  books,  for  they 

I  J.  Calvin  :  W.  Walker,  p.  334. 


Calvin  and  Se:rve:tus.  147 

rank  with  the  great  rarities  of  literature ;  the  one  a 
star  of  the  first  magnitude,  the  other  a  passing 
meteor ;  the  one  dying  quietly  upon  his  bed,  the  other 
shrieking  "misererecordias"  in  his  native  tongue 
amidst  the  crackling  of  fagots.  It  is  altogether  a 
dark  chapter  in  the  career  of  the  great  leader  of 
the  Reformation.  Gardens  and  vineyards  now 
cover  the  little  hillock  of  Champel,  south  of  the 
city,  where  the  funeral  pile  was  prepared  in  the 
thick  of  the  fallen  oak  leaves,  but  not  thus  can 
history  hide  the  scene.  In  1903,  on  the  three  hun- 
dred and  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  death  of  Ser- 
vetus,  many  friends  of  the  victim  of  intolerance 
set  up  a  monument  to  the  memory  of  "Michel 
Servet." 

"See  how  those  Christians  love  one  another," 
was  the  word  of  outsiders  in  the  first  cenlftry. 
"There  are  no  wild  beasts  so  ferocious  as  Chris- 
tians who  differ  concerning  their  faith,"  was  the 
exclamation  of  heathens  in  the  fourth  century.  The 
brilliant  writer  on  the  growth  of  rationalism  in 
Europe  ^  has  dwelt  upon  the  significance  of  this 
change  in  the  passing  centuries,  and  has  empha- 
sized the  fact  that  as  their  minds  became  diverted 
from  moral  considerations  and  were  filled  with  a 
sense  of  the  importance  of  subtle  theological  dis- 
tinctions, the  theologians  were  willing  to  shut  each 
other  out  of  heaven  upon  the  use  or  the  neglect 
of  a  vowel  point,  as  in  the  case  of  the  difference 

1  lyccky.. 


148         John  Calvin:  The  Statesman. 

between  the  Homo-ousians  and  the  Homot-ousians. 
The  Fathers  were  honorably  reluctant  to  shed  blood, 
however.  When  it  comes  to  the  Church  of  the 
Middle  Ages  its  influence  is  measured  by  the  abil- 
ity of  the  Clergy  to  direct  civil  authority  in  the 
punishment  of  heresy.  It  was  not  a  weak  but  a 
triumphant  Church  that  suppressed  heresy,  and  not 
in  impulse  but  in  deliberation,  and  not  secretly  but 
openly,  not  with  painless  poison  but  in  the  agonies 
of  a  slow  fire.  Popes  instigated  massacres,  as  in 
the  case  of  the  Albigenses,  or  gave  thanks  for 
wholesale  slaughter,  as  in  the  awful  night  of  St. 
Bartholomew. 

Nor  was  persecution  restricted  to  Catholics, 
and  though  Protestant  oppression  of  free  thought 
was  never  so  sanguinary  as  that  of  Catholicism,  yet 
even  the  stoutest  of  Reformers  against  Roman  in- 
tolerance breathed  the  air  of  the  times.  All  the 
leaders  of  the  Reformation  upheld  the  right  and 
the  duty  to  suppress  heresy,  save  Zwingli  and  So- 
cinus.  This  right  was  placed  in  the  hands  of  the 
civil  ruler  by  the  Helvetic,  Scottish,  Belgic  and 
Saxon  Confessions.  Luther,  Knox,  Beza,  Cran- 
mer  and  Ridley  asserted  the  right.  In  fact  early 
Protestantism  flinched  as  little  as  did  Rome  from 
the  extreme  consequences  of  intolerance.  The  ju- 
dicious Hallam  observes :  "Persecution  is  the  deadly 
original  sin  of  the  Reformed  Churches,  that  which 
cools  every  honest  man's  zeal  for  their  cause  as 
his  reading  becomes  more  extensive."  ^ 

1  Const.  Hist.  I ;  2. 


Calvin  and  Se:rve:tus.  149 

And  yet,  because  Protestantism  was  flexible,  and 
its  very  principle  of  appeal  to  individual  reason 
demanded  a  degree  of  toleration,  it  moved,  with 
greater  rapidity  than  Catholicism,  toward  freedom 
of  thought  and  speech. 

It  should  be  remembered  that  the  age  was  a 
cruel  one,  and  that  men  of  high  character  inflicted 
upon  their  fellows  brutal  penalties,  utterly  without 
excuse  in  a  later  day,  and  strangely  inconsistent 
in  their  own  day  with  the  gospel  they  preached. 
The  great  historian  of  the  Inquisition,  Dr.  Lea, 
says :  ''There  is  no  doubt  that  men  of  the  kindliest 
tempers,  the  profoundest  intelligence,  the  noblest 
aspirations,  the  purest  zeal  for  righteousness,  pro- 
fessing a  religion  founded  on  love  and  charity, 
were  ruthless  when  heresy  was  concerned,  and  were 
ready  to  trample  it  out  at  the  cost  of  any  suffering. 
The  wheel,  the  caldron  of  burning  oil,  burning 
alive,  flaying  alive,  tearing  apart  with  wild  horses, 
were  the  ordinary  expedients  by  which  the  crimi- 
nal jurists  sought  to  deter  crime  by  frightful  ex- 
amples which  would  make  a  profound  impression 
on  a  not  over  sensitive  population."  ^ 

The  time  of  the  trial  and  death  of  Servetus  was 
one  of  intense  agitation  in  the  city  of  Geneva.  Cal- 
vin was  battling  with  the  Little  Council  while  Ser- 
vetus lay  in  prison,  and  it  was  a  question  whether 
his  defiance  of  that  evenly  divided  body  would  not 
send  him  out  of  the  city  though  it  might  at  the 


1  Inquisition,  p.  234. 


I50  John  Cai^vin:  Th^  State:sman. 

same  time  send  Servetus  to  the  stake.  Servetus 
only  added  fuel  to  the  flames.  Calvin  had  just 
refused  the  Sacrament  to  one  of  his  bitterest  ene- 
mies, Berthelier,  and  had  set  himself  with  amazing 
courage  against  the  Council.  He  had  gone  so  far 
as  to  declare,  only  a  few  days  before  the  awful 
scene  at  Champel,  in  the  pulpit  of  St.  Peter's :  "This 
may  be  my  last  sermon  to  you;  for  they  who  are 
in  power  would  force  me  to  do  what  God  does  not 
permit.''  In  this  fact,  the  opposition  to  Calvin,  may 
be  found  a  reason  why  the  Council  ordered  a 
harsher  form  of  death  for  Servetus  than  the  one 
desired  by  Calvin.  It  is  not  meant  by  this  that 
had  Servetus  dropped  into  Geneva  a  year  earlier 
or  a  year  later  than  1553,  he  would  have  escaped 
the  death  penalty.  Thirteen  years  after  he  died, 
the  Council  of  Bern  put  a  Valentino  Gentile  to  death 
by  the  sword  for  heresy,  and  not  a  voice  was  lifted 
in  his  behalf. 

Such  was  the  condition  of  affairs  when  the 
Spaniard  entered  Geneva  in  July,  1553. 

Michael  Servetus  was  born  in  Villaneuva  in 
the  old  kingdom  of  Aragon,  in  1509  or  151 1, 
though  some  accounts  give  his  nativity  at  Tudela. 
There  is  much  uncertainty  as  to  his  early  life,  yet 
it  appears  that  a  very  early  age  he  entered  the 
University  of  Saragossa,  and  thence  went  to  Tou- 
louse, as  a  student  of  law,  the  hereditary  occupa- 
tion of  his  family.  His  most  sympathetic  bio- 
grapher, R.  Willis,  thus  judges  him  in  his  student 


CAI.VIN    AND    S^RVE:TUS.  15I 

days:  "Michael  Servetus,  as  we  apprehend  him, 
was  one  of  those  sensitive  natures,  which,  Uke  the 
stainless  plate  of  the  photographer,  retains  at  once 
and  reflects  every  object  presented  to  it."  He  vi- 
brated between  law,  theology,  and  medicine,  and 
in  all  was  noted  for  restlessness  under  any  phase 
of  tyranny.  He  developed  heterodox  views, 
whether  from  the  point  of  view  of  Catholic  or  of 
Protestant.  Zwingli  said  of  him  in  1530,  "the  false 
and  wicked  doctrine  of  the  troublesome  Spaniard 
goes  far  to  do  away  with  the  whole  of  our  Chris- 
tian  religion."  But  Servetus,  opinionated,  and 
highly  contemptuous  of  his  opponents,  though  then 
barely  of  age,  was  not  to  be  deterred  from  putting, 
in  1 53 1  at  Strassburg,  the  final  touches  to  his  "De 
Trinitatis  Brrorihiis."  The  book  blew  up  no  small 
talk,  even  in  distant  places.  In  his  Table-Talk 
Luther,  the  year  after  its  publication,  refers  to  a 
"fearfully  wicked  book — ein  greulich  bos  Buch," 
which  had  lately  come  out  against  the  doctrine  of 
the  Holy  Trinity. 

Finding  his  Swiss  friends  of  unwelcome  spirit 
Servetus  left  Switzerland  for  Paris,  and  under  the 
name  of  Villeneuve  entered  as  a  student  of  mathe- 
matics  and  physics  in  one  of  the  Colleges.  Under 
this  name  he  afterwards  practiced  medicine  for 
twelve  years  at  Vienne. 

While  at  Paris  he  encountered  Calvin,  and  chal- 
lenged him  to  a  debate,  but  forfeited  the  engage- 
ment and  laid  himself  open  to  Calvin's  reproach: 


152         John  Cai^vin:  The^  Statesman. 

''You  fled  at  the  encountre/'  Willis  does  not  think 
that  Calvin  at  the  time  of  this  challenge  knew 
that  Villenueve  was  the  Servetus  whom  he  later 
on  did  to  the  death.  His  real  name  and  obnoxious 
books  did  not  fully  emerge  until  the  period  of  his 
trial  at  Geneva,  twenty  years  afterwards.  Mean- 
while he  spent  some  time  at  Lyons  as  proof-reader 
to  Trechsel  the  printer,  and  issued  a  magnificent 
edition  of  Ptolemy's  Geography,  a  truly  renlark- 
able  work  for  a  man  of  his  age.  One  year  later 
Calvin  put  forth  his  great  Institutes.  In  his 
Geography,  first  edition,  he  depreciates  Palestine 
as  "inhospitable,  barren,  and  altogether  without 
amenity,"  and  though  this  was  changed  in  the 
second  edition,  it  was  used  against  him  in  his  trial 
as  reflecting  upon  the  land  ''flowing  with  milk  and 
honey."  Servetus  became  Scientist,  Astrologer, 
and  got  great  fame  as  Physician.  In  his  work  on 
the  Restitution  of  Christianity,  he  described  the  cir- 
culation of  the  blood,  seventy-five  years  ahead  of 
Harvey's  discovery.  His  basis  of  the  Godhead  as 
pantheistic,  his  disgust  with  the  Trinity  as  a  "three- 
headed  Cerberus,"  his  announcement  of  revelation 
as  progressive,  his  rejection  of  predestination,  and 
his  attachment  of  merit  to  good  works,  opened  him 
up  to  the  assaults  of  the  orthodox.  At  present 
only  two  copies  of  the  original  edition  are  known 
to  exist:  one  in  the  National  Library  at  Paris, 
the  other  in  the  Imperial  Library  at  Vienna. 
Strange  and  pathetic  contrast  to  the  innumerable 


CAI.VIN   AND   SeJRVETUS.  153 

and  endless  multiplications  of  the  books  of  the  Re- 
former of  Geneva.  In  1790  the  book  rose  like  a 
phoenix,  in  the  shape  of  an  exact  reprint,  but  even 
this  is  now  rare. 

It  was  while  at  Vienne  that  Servetus  began  a 
correspondence  with  Calvin,  in  which  the  latter 
gave  no  evidence  of  ill  temper,  until  worn  out 
with  the  teasing  importunity  of  Servetus  he  refused 
to  continue  the  correspondence.  They  exchanged 
books,  and  on  receiving  the  copy  of  his  Institutes, 
with  margins  filled  with  criticisms,  Calvin  wrote 
"there  is  hardly  a  page  that  is  not  defiled  by  his 
vomit." 

Calvin's  last  letter  to  Servetus  is  lost,  but  his 
severity  need  not  be  questioned,  for,  in  a  letter  to 
Jean  Frellon,  written  at  the  same  time,  he  inti- 
mates that  he  had  just  written  to  his  versatile  in- 
quisitor. "Since  he  has  written  to  me  in  so  proud 
a  spirit,  I  have  been  led  to  write  to  him  more 
sharply  than  is  my  wont,  being  minded  to  take  him 
down  a  little  in  his  presumption.  But  I  could  not 
do  otherwise,  for  I  assure  you  there  is  no  lesson  he 
needs  to  learn  so  much  as  humility.  This  must 
come  to  him  through  the  grace  of  God,  not  other- 
wise. But  we,  too,  ought  to  lend  a  helping  hand." 
What  a  delicious  bit  of  insight  into  the  magnifi- 
cent self-assurance  which  possessed  the  master 
theologian,  and  would  be  humorous  if  it  were  not 
tied  up  with  so  dark  a  tragedy. 

On  the  same  day  Calvin  wrote  to  Farel,  Febru- 


154         John  Cai^vin:  The  State:sman. 

ary  13,  1546:  "Servetus  lately  wrote  to  me,  and 
coupled  with  his  letter  a  long  volume  of  his  de- 
lirious fancies,  with  the  Thrasonic  boast,  that  I 
should  see  something  astonishing  and  unheard  of. 
He  offers  to  come  hither,  if  it  be  agreeable  to  me. 
But  I  am  unwilling  to  pledge  my  word  for  his 
safety;  for  if  he  does  come,  and  my  authority  be 
of  any  avail,  I  shall  not  suffer  him  to  depart  alive." 
It  is  not  likely  that  seven  years  afterwards  Calvin 
forgot  his  threat  when  his  hold  on  Geneva  was 
shaken  by  the  coming  of  the  intruder. 

In  the  forepart  of  1553  a  copy  of  the  Restitutio, 
secretly  printed  at  Vienne,  reached  Calvin.  A 
friend  of  Calvin,  one  Guillaume  Trie,  a  fugitive 
from  Lyons,  in  correspondence  with  a  cousin  at 
Lyons,  who  had  rallied  Trie  on  alleged  freedom  of 
thought  in  Geneva,  sent  to  his  cousin  a  few  pages 
of  the  new  volume,  and  said  of  the  author  that  ''he 
ought  to  be  burned  alive."  Though  this  appears  to 
have  been  a  private  expression,  it  resulted  in  the 
arrest  of  Servetus  before  the  Catholic  authorities 
at  Lyons.  Soon  more  information  was  furnished 
by  Trie,  according  to  some  authorities  at  the  in- 
stigation of  Calvin,  and  as  others  think,  without  it. 
There  can  be  little  doubt  that  Calvin  was  knowing, 
if  not  to  the  first  letter,  at  least  to  what  followed, 
when  Trie  sent  to  the  court  of  trial  the  marked 
copy  of  Calvin's  Institutes,  annotated  by  Servetus 
himself,  and  very  probably  furnished  all  the  docu- 
ments needed  by  the  Court  of  Trial  at  Lyons.    In 


Calvin  and  Se:rve:tus.  155 

the  course  of  the  investigation  Servetus  crossed  his 
own  path  several  times,  if  he  did  not  He  to  con- 
fuse his  adversaries.  Before  the  sentence  of  death, 
by  slow  fire,  delivered  June  17th,  Servetus  made 
his  escape,  on  April  7th,  by  the  help  of  friends,  it 
is  thought,  and  crossed  the  Rhone,  and  fled  to 
Geneva. 

Why  go  to  Geneva?  This  question  has  been 
asked  but  not  satisfactorily  answered.  He  did  not 
need  to  go  there.  He  certainly  had  reason  to  dis- 
trust the  wrath  of  Calvin,  even  if  not  deadly.  He 
might  have  taken  another  route  to  Italy,  as  he  was 
bound  for  Naples.  At  any  rate,  he  arrived  in 
Geneva,  alone,  July,  1553.  Stopping  at  the  *'Rose" 
tavern  for  a  few  days,  he  attended  Church,  August 
13th,  and  while  listening  to  a  sermon  of  Calvin 
was  recognized,  and  soon  after  arrested,  at  the 
instigation  of  Calvin.  Calvin  freely  admitted  that 
he  wished  him  out  of  the  way,  as  is  plain  from  the 
letter  to  Farel  of  August  20th,  in  which  he  said: 
"I  hope  the  judgment  will  be  capital  in  any  event, 
but  I  desire  cruelty  of  punishment  withheld."  The 
trial  was  immediately  begun.  Servetus,  according 
to  the  ordinances  of  1543,  was  denied  counsel.  He 
was  not  tortured.  The  deed  of  accusation  was 
drawn  up  by  Calvin  and  the  liabilities  of  a  false 
accuser  were  assumed  by  a  refugee  in  the  employ 
of  Calvin,  Nicholas  de  la  Fontaine,  as  was  cus- 
tomary.   The  main  charges  were  of  a  theological 


156         John  Calvin:  The:  Statesman. 

nature,  though  they  embraced  also  attacks  upon 
Calvin. 

Taking  advantage  of  the  critical  condition  of 
the  struggle  in  which  Calvin  was  engaged  with  the 
adverse  elements  of  the  Council,  his  foes  took  up 
the  side  of  Servetus,  not  that  they  favored  his  spec- 
ulations, but  that  the  trial  offered  them  an  oppor- 
tunity to  strike  a  heavy  blow  at  their  hated  leader. 
The  result  of  the  first  phase  of  the  trial  was  un- 
favorable to  the  accused.  The  second  act  was  in- 
troduced by  Claude  Rigot,  state's-attorney,  and  in 
this  the  prisoner  was  charged  with  immorality  and 
the  attempt  to  spread  dangerous  opinions.  A  well 
known  physical  infirmity  disproved  the  first  charge, 
and  to  the  second  Servetus  replied  that  he  had 
come  to  Geneva  with  no  sinister  purpose."  His 
demand  to  be  released  was  urged  with  good  rea- 
sons. Meanwhile,  the  Catholic  authorities  at 
Vienne  sent  a  demand  for  the  surrender  of  the 
prisoner.  This  the  Little  Council  refused  to  heed, 
but  promised  to  do  him  full  justice.  Servetus  him- 
self expressed  a  wish  to  remain  in  Geneva,  think- 
ing that  he  might  meet  a  lighter  penalty. 

A  discussion  was  proposed  by  the  Council,  in 
the  hope  that  Servetus  might  be  cured  of  the  error 
of  his  ways,  and  nothing  loath,  Calvin  instituted  a 
colloquy  in  the  presence  of  the  judges,  two  of 
whom,  Perrin  and  Berthelier,  were  his  worst  foes. 
This  method  not  being  satisfactory,  the  judges  or- 
dered Calvin  to  submit  his  statement  of  the  pris- 


Calvin  and  Se^rvetus.  157 

oner's  errors  in  writing,  and  Servetus  to  make 
answer,  both  of  them  in  Latin.  In  this  battle  with 
the  pen  Servetus  injured  his  cause,  for  he  indulged 
himself  in  the  most  objurgatory  epithets,  even  with 
violence,  calling  Calvin,  "Simon  Magus,"  and  abus- 
ing him  like  a  madman.  "Thou  liest,  thou  liest, 
thou  liest,  thou  liest,  thou  miserable  wretch !"  To 
this  Calvin  made  no  reply. 

The  whole  matter  was  then  submitted  to  Prot- 
estant Switzerland  as  a  jury,  September  22d,  the 
very  day  on  which  Servetus  animated  by  a  false 
hope,  appealed  to  the  Genevan  government  to 
cause  the  arrest  of  Calvin,  as  himself  a  false  ac- 
cuser, making  plea  "that  the  case  be  settled  by 
his  or  my  death  or  other  penalty."  But  the  reply 
of  the  Swiss  Churches  was  decidedly  unfavorable 
to  Servetus,  for  they  unanimously  recommended 
that  he  be  declared  guilty,  and  the  penalty  left  to 
the  discretion  of  Geneva. 

The  times  were  indeed  critical  for  Calvin.  He 
had  but  just  succeeded  in  preventing  Berthelier 
from  taking  the  Communion,  for  on  the  i8th  of 
September  the  Council  had  voted  to  ''hold  to  the 
Ordinances  as  before."  The  answers  from  the 
Swiss  churches  greatly  strengthened  the  cause  of 
Calvin,  and  with  his  opponents  beaten,  and  despite 
the  delays  urged  by  Perrin,  October  26th,  the  Coun- 
cil ordered  Servetus  to  be  burned  alive.  The  burn- 
ing was  not  to  Calvin's  mind,  but  the  court  did  not 
heed  his  desire  for  a  milder  form  of  death,  and 


158         John  Cai^vin:  The:  Statesman. 

sentenced  Servetus  to  be  burned  after  the  following 
verdict : 

"We  condemn  thee,  Michael  Servetus,  to  be  bound, 
and  led  to  the  place  of  Champel,  there  to  be  fastened  to 
a  stake  and  burned  alive,  together  with  thy  book,  as  well 
the  one  written  by  thy  hand  and  the  printed  one,  even 
till  thy  body  be  reduced  to  ashes;  and  thus  shalt  thou 
finish  thy  days  to  furnish  an  example  to  others  who  might 
wish  to  commit  the  like." 

Crushed  at  first  by  the  unexpected  sentence 
Servetus  rose  with  simple  courage  to  meet  his 
fate,  refusing  to  Farel  a  recantation  of  his  errors, 
and  though  he  asked  the  pardon  of  Calvin  for  any 
wrong  he  might  have  done  him,  he  would  not 
yield  his  opinions.  His  one  request  was  for  a  death 
in  whose  less  fierce  torments  he  might  be  sure  not 
to  deny  his  convictions.  The  story  of  his  execu- 
tion is  one  of  an  awful  mingling  of  mistaken  jus- 
tice, devotion  to  truth,  and,  it  must  be  allowed, 
even  of  vindictiveness.  Towards  noon  of  October 
27th,  the  procession  came  to  a  halt  in  the  Place  de 
Champel.  Servetus  appeared  to  be  completely  hum- 
bled, resigned,  and  submissive  to  his  fate.  At  the 
funeral  pile  Farel  led  the  people  in  prayer.  The 
executioner  fastens  him  by  iron  chains  to  the  stake 
amid  the  fagots,  puts  a  crown  of  leaves  covered 
with  sulphur  on  his  head,  and  binds  his  book  by 
his  side.  The  sight  of  the  flaming  torch  extorts 
from  him  a  piercing  shriek  of  "miserere  cordias"  in 
his  native  tongue;  the  spectators  fall  back  with  a 


Cai^vin  and  Skrvetus.  159 

shudder;  the  flames  soon  reach  him,  and  consume 
him  in  the  forty-fourth  year  of  his  fitful  Hfe.  In 
the  last  moments  he  was  heard  to  pray  in  smoke 
and  agony,  with  a  loud  voice,  "Jesus  Christ,  thou 
Son  of  the  Eternal  God,  have  mercy  upon  me."  ^ 
Thus  he  died  for  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  which 
he  had  upheld  during  many  years  of  life. 

The  present  age  makes  no  mistake  in  its  sym- 
pathy with  Servetus.  The  sixteenth  century  is  re- 
pulsive to  the  twentieth  century  in  its  unfeeling  ver- 
dict of  the  stake  for  opinion's  sake,  and  we  leave 
the  scene  with  conflicting  emotions. 

The  growth  of  Calvin's  spirit  from  the  shrink- 
ing to  the  severe  is  a  fact  worth  recalling.  In 
the  earlier  editions  of  his  Institutes  are  passages 
which  show  that  he  had  convictions  that  heretics 
should  not  be  punished,  at  least  with  harshness. 
He  says:  "We  should  strive  by  all  possible  means, 
by  exhortation,  and  teaching,  by  clemency  and  kind- 
ness, and  by  our  prayers  to  God,  that  they  may  be 
commended  to  better  thoughts,  and  return  to  the 
bosom  of  the  Church."  This  and  other  passages 
are  altered  in  later  editions.  What  changed  the 
man?  Possibly  his  naturally  acid  temper  became 
more  bitter  with  the  accumulation  of  conflicts,  and 
the  crisis  which  came  in  the  year  1553  brought  him 
to  the  last  level  of  bitterness  against  all  opposition. 
He  had  sufficient  support  from  his  surrounding 
theologians.    Though  a  few  condemned  the  exceed- 


1  So  Dr.  Schaff  in  Swiss  Ref. 


i6o         John  Cai.vin:  The  State:sman. 

ing  fierceness  of  the  sentence  and  its  execution,  yet 
the  great  majority  of  the  leading  Protestants,  like 
Melanchthon,  the  mildest  of  all  men,  declared  it  a 
just  verdict.  Even  Guizot,  writing  within  the  last 
half  century,  says  that  "Calvin's  cause  was  the  good 
one,  that  it  was  the  cause  of  morality,  of  social 
order,  and  of  civilization.  Servetus  was  the  rep- 
resentative of  a  system  false  in  itself,  superficial 
under  the  pretense  of  science,  and  destructive  alike 
of  moral  dignity  in  the  individual,  and  of  moral 
order  in  human  society."     This  on  one  side. 

On  the  other  this.  At  the  third  centennial  of 
the  anniversary  of  the  death  of  Calvin,  held  at 
Geneva,  May  2J,  1864,  M.  le  pasteur  Coutin,  an 
eloquent  speaker,  said:  "Make  every  allowance  for 
the  spirit  of  the  age,  for  the  prevailing  prejudices 
which  not  even  a  man  of  genius  can  altogether 
escape;  make  allowance  for  all  the  necessities  of 
the  time  and  the  pressure  of  circumstances ;  make 
allowance  for  whatever  you  choose;  but  the  fact 
still  remains  that  the  laws  and  measures  by  means 
of  which  Calvin  endeavored  to  ensure  unity  of 
conviction  in  Geneva  are  a  stain  upon  his  memory, 
an  element  condemned  beforehand  in  all  his  work, 
upon  which  time  ought  to  pass  a  just  sentence." 

This  is  Geneva  herself  in  the  third  century  from 
the  scene.  A  half  century  later,  1903,  the  monu- 
ment to  Servetus  reveals  the  sympathy  of  the 
thinking  world. 


CHAPTER  X. 
CALVIN— THE  MAN. 

It  is  difficult  for  us  who  cultivate  a  smiling 
charity  towards  opponents  to  enter  into  the  men- 
tal operations  of  an  intolerant  logician  of  the  six- 
teenth century,  and  for  a  materialist  age  like  ours 
to  measure  the  motives  of  a  literalist-mystic  like 
Calvin.  He  was  great,  and  he  erred.  According 
to  Guizot  his  errors  were  those  of  his  times,  his 
greatness  of  all  times.  He  touched  world-problems 
and  lives  to-day.  ''The  greatest  minds  in  history," 
says  John  Morley,  "are  those  who  in  a  full  career 
and  amid  the  turbid  extremities  of  political  action, 
have  yet  touched  closest  and  at  most  points  the 
wide,  everstanding  problems  of  the  world,  and  the 
things  in  which  men's  intent  never  dies."  ^  Of  this 
far-shining  company  John  Calvin  was  assuredly 
one.  There  is  therefore  nothing  about  him,  his 
appearance,  habits,  methods  of  work,  views,  powers, 
aims,  in  which  we  are  not  interested. 

According  to  the  description  of  his  most  in- 
timate friend,  Beza,  Calvin  was  of  middle  stature, 
of  feeble  health,  courteous,  kind,  grave,  and  digni- 


1  Cromwell,  p.  6. 

II  i6i 


i62  John  Calvin:  Th^  Statesman. 

fied  in  deportment.  His  frame  was  meagre,  even 
emaciated,  his  face  was  thin,  pale,  finely  chiseled, 
mouth  well-formed,  he  wore  a  long  pointed  beard, 
his  hair  was  black,  his  nose  prominent,  his  fore- 
head lofty,  his  eyes  flaming.  His  dress  was  plain 
and  neat,  his  habits  were  methodical  in  the  ex- 
treme, his  abstemiousness  at  times  incredible,  his 
frame  altogether  too  slight  for  his  mighty  labors. 
Death  worked  little  change  in  his  countenance,  for 
Beza  remarked  that  he  looked  in  death  almost  the 
same  as  alive  in  sleep. 

He  was  after  a  sort  a  Stoic,  or  a  modern  Hebrew 
Prophet.  Duty,  integrity,  single-eyed  devotion  to 
his  ideal  as  he  saw  it  dominatejd  his  life.  Below 
his  autograph  in  the  frontispiece  of  Henry's  smaller 
biography  are  the  words  ''Cor  meum  velut  macta- 
tam  Domino  in  sacriUcium  offero."  The  words 
describe  a  fitting  symbol — a  hand  offering  a  bleed- 
ing heart  to  God.  His  frail  health  was  a  constant 
hindrance  to  his  plans  and  toil.  We  find  frequent 
mention  of  his  sickness  as  a  reason  for  postponing 
certain  labors.  ''Completely  worn  out,"  he  writes. 
"Before  I  have  concluded," — ^he  is  about  to  send 
off  a  letter  in  1547 — "a  cough  has  seized  me,  and 
hits  me  so  hard  upon  the  shoulder  that  I  can  not 
draw  a  stroke  of  the  pen  without  acute  pain."  The 
signature  of  another  letter  tells  all  the  story :  "John 
Calvin,  confined  to  bed;" — that  all  is  his  grim  pur- 
pose to  keep  in  touch  with  the  age  for  whose  bet- 
terment  he   was   so   largely   responsible,   and   the 


Calvin — The  Man.  163 

wracked  frame  whose  weakness  his  mighty  will 
bent  to  high  service  in  the  work  of  the  Church. 

Calvin's  mode  of  living  was  of  the  simplest. 
"When  a  man,"  he  says,  "is  content  with  scanty 
food  and  common  clothing,  and  does  not  require 
from  the  humblest  more  frugality  than  he  shows 
and  practices  himself,  shall  it  be  said  that  such 
an  one  is  too  sumptuous  and  lives  in  too  high  a 
style?"  His  pleasures  were  few  and  simple.  John 
Knox  found  him  playing  bowls  on  a  Sunday  after- 
noon. "He  himself  made  no  scruple  in  engaging  in 
play  with  the  seigneurs  of  Geneva ;  but  that  was  the 
innocent  game  of  the  clef  (key),  which  consists 
in  being  able  to  push  the  keys  the  nearest  possible 
to  the  edge  of  the  table."  ^  His  goods  and  pos- 
sessions amounted  to  about  two  hundred  dollars. 
He  derived  no  profit  from  his  books,  though  they 
were  dedicated  to  princes  and  noblemen.  The  only 
really  valuable  bit  of  fine  ware  he  received  was  a 
silver  goblet,  from  the  Lord  of  Varennes. 

He  loved  truth,  and  he  loved  men,  not  possibly 
as  the  warm-hearted  Luther  drew  his  fellows  to 
him,  yet  with  no  scant  devotion  to  their  good.  His 
affection  for  Farel  and  Viret  is  seen  in  his  dedi- 
cation to  them  of  his  Commentary  on  Titus :  "I  do 
not  think  there  have  ever  been  friends  who  have 
lived  together  in  such  fast  friendship  and  concord, 
as  we  have  during  our  ministry."  When  Viret  lost 
his  wife  Calvin  wrote  to  him :  "Would  that  I  could 


1  Bonnet's  I^etters,  2,  49. 


i64         John  CaIvVin:  This  Statesman. 

fly  thither,  that  I  might  alleviate  your  sorrow,  or 
at  least  bear  a  part  of  it." 

Viret,  Farel,  Beza,  Knox  and  Melanchthon  held 
him  in  undying  affection.  Knox  was  his  senior  by 
a  few  years,  but  declared  him  the  greatest  man 
since  the  days  of  the  apostles;  Farel  who  had 
stopped  him  on  that  fateful  night  from  going  on 
beyond  Geneva,  loved  him  freely  to  the  end,  and 
in  his  old  age  hastened  from  Neufchatel  to  Geneva 
on  foot  to  bid  the  dying  leader  farewell ;  Beza,  the 
most  cultured  of  all  the  Reformers,  knew  Calvin 
intimately  for  sixteen  years,  and  revered  him  as  a 
father ;  Melanchthon  wished  to  die  on  his  bosom. 
No  one  can  turn  the  pages  of  his  voluminous  cor- 
respondence, and  fail  to  see  that  his  letters  to 
various  persons  scatter  the  slanders  of  Audin  to 
the  four  winds,  those  misrepresentations  which  ac- 
cuse Calvin  of  lacking  an  unselfish  heart,  and  of 
being  made  of  marble.  True,  he  was  endowed  with 
a  most  forceful  wrath,  which  he  did  not  always 
hold  in  leash  and  then  woe  betide  the  man  against 
whom  he  aimed  the  shafts  of  his  scorn  and  wit. 
''Even  a  dog  barks,"  he  would  say,  "when  his  mas- 
ter is  attacked;  how  could  I  be  silent  when  the 
honor  of  my  Master  is  assailed?"  He  wrote  to  his 
friend  Bucer  that  he  found  it  difficult  to  tame  the 
wild  beast  of  his  wrath,  and  humbly  asked  pardon. 

"An  irritable  pride  is  one  of  the  salient  traits 
of  his  character,"  says  Dyer,  and  adds,  "This  feel- 
ing particularly  betrayed  itself  where  Calvin's  lit- 


CaIvVIn — The  Man.  165 

erary  reputation  or  his  authority  as  a  teacher  was 
concerned;  for  these  were  the  instruments  of  his 
power  and  influence."  Beza  admits  Calvin's  prone- 
ness  to  anger,  which  however  is  characterized  by 
Calvin  himself,  more  correctly,  as  morosity.  As  to 
his  "surly"  disposition  Henry  deemed  that  he  was 
what  Bossuet  called  him,  "un  genie  triste/'  He 
finds  in  him  eagerness,  indignant  zeal  for  the  truth, 
yet  in  his  letters  a  cheerful,  even  childlike  confi- 
dence and  in  his  manners  nothing  formal  nor  re- 
pulsive. Small  things  excited  his  impatience.  He 
was  at  times  harsh,  and  possibly  to  his  friends  his 
irritableness,  based  largely  upon  his  physical  infirm- 
ities, was  at  times  somewhat  trying.  The  Genevan 
Council  happily  called  his  main  feature  of  moral 
worth,  "Majesty  of  Character."  It  was  a  contem- 
porary of  Calvin,  the  Italian  Guicciardini,  who 
warned  statesmen  against  levity.  "Light  men  are 
the  very  instruments  for  whatever  is  bad,  danger- 
ous, and  hurtful ;  flee  from  them  like  fire."  Calvin 
would  have  had  only  the  rarest  praise  from  the 
wise  Italian,  for  he  took  life  seriously.  His  life 
was  a  link  in  the  long,  the  divine  order  of  things, 
and  everything  that  in  any  way  interfered  with  the 
achievement  of  his  ideal  was  sternly  put  aside. 

He  was  of  granite  mould;  Melanchthon  often 
desponded;  Knox,  fiery,  energetic,  daring,  found 
himself  disheartened.  But  no  trace  of  weakness 
can  be  discovered  in  Calvin's  faith.  He  must  have 
been  caught  in  the  worst  perplexities,  but  his  con- 


i66         John  Cai^vin:  Thk  State:sman. 

fidence  in  God  suffered  no  just  impeachment.  He 
was  ready  for  any  fate,  and  true  to  his  doctrine 
was  his  practice.  "I  am  assured,  in  the  first  place, 
that  God  has  me  in  ^flis  holy  keeping;  and,  in  the 
second  place,  that  if  it  pleases  Him  we  should 
suffer,  I  would  gladly  die  for  Him."  This  marked 
the  great  soul. 

His  unselfishness  appears  in  an  entry  upon  the 
Registres  of  the  Council,  January  29,  1546;  after 
a  serious  sickness  the  Seigneury  presented  him  with 
ten  crowns.  "On  his  recovery  he  returns  the  money 
to  the  Council,  who  cause  it  to  be  expended  in  the 
purchase  of  a  cask  of  wine  for  him,  thus  leaving 
him  no  alternative  but  to  accept  it."  On  another 
occasion  he  refused  an  increase  of  salary  except  on 
the  condition  that  his  poorer  brethren  were  to  be 
likewise  benefited. 

Calvin's  appreciation  of  the  wonders  of  the  nat- 
ural world  was  lively  and  definite.  In  the  chapter 
of  the  Institutes  on  Creation  he  is  full  of  admiration 
for  the  order  and  beauty  of  the  universe  of  God. 
"God  has  wonderfully  adorned  heaven  and  earth 
with  the  utmost  possible  abundance,  variety,  and 
beauty,  like  a  large  and  splendid  mansion,  most 
exquisitely  and  copiously  furnished,  and  exhibited 
in  man  the  masterpiece  of  his  works  by  distin- 
guishing him  with  such  splendid  beauty  and  such 
numerous  and  great  privileges." 

Still  those  are  in  the  right  who  claim  that  his 
realm  of  joy  was  that  of  the  moral  universe  and 


CAI.VIN — The  Man.  167 

not  that  of  the  G2nevan  hills.  We  find  small  ref- 
erence to  the  glories  that  were  the  perpetual  feast 
of  men  who  in  a  later  day  saw  with  opened  eyes 
the  splendors  of  mountain  and  lake  and  sky.  It 
was  not  till  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century  that 
the  charms  of  the  outer  world,  the  flower,  the 
crag,  and  the  cloud,  began  to  refresh  the  heart  of 
literature.  Addison  had  little  to  say  of  the  mar- 
vels of  the  Alps  in  the  opening  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  nor  had  John  Milton  a  hundred  years  be- 
fore Wordsworth,  lifted  his  hard  and  battling  age 
into  loving  appreciation  of  the  beauties  of  nature. 
It  is  indeed  strange  that  the  exceeding  charm  of  the 
city  and  its  surroundings  in  which  Calvin  spent 
nearly  half  his  life  should  not  have  evoked  a  warmer 
word  than  we  can  find  anywhere  in  his  writings. 
The  city  of  Geneva  has  a  noble  outlook.  It  pos- 
sesses cathedral,  the  bridge  spanning  the  Rhone,  a 
**blue-green  floor,"  and  near  by  the  hills  of  the  Jura, 
and  in  the  further  distance  Mont  Blanc,  all  detailed 
in  the  crystal  air  as  if  with  the  fidelity  of  a  mi- 
croscope. On  a  clear  day  the  lake  is  ruffled  into 
almost  impossible  colors.  One  appreciates  Mr. 
Howell's  description  of  Geneva  as  *'an  admirable 
illustration  printed  in  colors,  for  a  holiday  number, 
to  imitate  a  water-color  sketch."  The  marvel  of 
it  all  is  Mount  Blanc  when  uncovered,  whether  in 
rosy  splendor  or  in  its  white  ghastliness.  It  is  barely 
possible  that  Calvin  had  this  vision  in  mind  when 
he  wrote  to  his  friend,  M.  de  Falaise,  February  25, 


i68         John  Cai^vin:  The  State:sman. 

1547,  with  regard  to  a  house  he  was  engaging  for 
him :  "You  will  have  in  front  a  small  garden,  and  a 
noticeably  spacious  court.  Behind  there  is  another 
garden.  A  great  saloon,  with  as  beautiful  view 
as  you  could  well  desire  for  the  Summer." 

Art,  save  in  the  forms  of  poetry  and  music,  to 
save  literature  for  later  discussion,  did  not  demand 
the  attention  of  Calvin.  He  insisted  upon  congre- 
gational singing,  and  wrote  a  few  versions  of 
Psalms,  and  a  hymn  of  praise  to  Christ  in  which 
a  real  fervor  and  tenderness  run  through  the  lines, 
a  sample  of  which  is  appended : 

"I  greet  Thee,  who  my  sure  Redeemer  art, 
My  only  trust,  and  Saviour  of  my  heart! 
Who  so  much  toil  and  woe 
And  pain  didst  undergo, 
For  my  poor  worthless  sake; 
We  pray  Thee,  from  our  hearts, 
All  idle  griefs  and  smarts 
And  foolish  cares  to  take. 

Thou  art  the  true  and  perfect  gentleness 
No  harshness  hast  Thou,  and  no  bitterness : 
Make  us  to  taste  and  prove. 
Make  us  adore  and  love. 
The  sweet  grace  found  in  Thee; 
With  longing  to  abide 
Ever  at  Thy  dear  side. 
In  Thy  sweet  unity. 

Poor,  banished  exiles,  wretched  sons  of  Eve, 
Full  of  all  sorrows,  unto  Thee  we  grieve; 

To  Thee  we  bring  our  sighs, 

Our  groanings  and  our  cries; 


Cai^vin — The)  Man.  169 

Thy  pity,  Lord,  we  crave; 

We  take  the  sinner's  place, 

And  pray  Thee,  of  Thy  grace. 
To  pardon  and  to  save." 

If  in  any  field  of  art  we  look  for  pre-eminence 
in  the  case  of  Calvin,  it  must  be  in  that  of  litera- 
ture. Here  he  leads  the  throng  of  writers  of  his 
day,  in  two  languages,  Latin  and  French.  "With 
him,"  says  Van  Laun,  "French  prose  may  be  said 
to  have  attained  its  manhood;  the  best  of  all  his 
contemporaries,  and  of  those  who  had  preceded 
him,  did  but  use  as  a  staff  or  as  a  toy  that  which 
he  employed  as  a  burning  sword."  ^ 

He  holds  rank  with  the  great  satirists  of  the 
world.  Though  to  Rabelais  he  was  "the  demoniac 
of  Geneva,"  he  made  the  power  of  his  keen  blade 
felt  wherever  it  fell.  "Satire  without  a  smile  is 
perhaps  the  nearest  approach  to  outward  feeling 
which  we  find  recorded,  of  the  hypochondriac  re- 
former of  Geneva."  ^  His  wit  was  not  so  coarse 
as  that  of  Rabelais,  nor  so  gentle  as  that  of  Mon- 
taigne, but  it  was  none  the  less  dreaded  by  his 
opponents.  When  the  need  arises  it  leaps  out  in 
his  famous  letters.  He  was  one  of  the  great  letter 
writers  of  the  world.  When  too  poor  to  purchase 
books,  he  wrote;  in  exile  he  wrote;  when  sick  he 
wrote.  So  inevitable  was  it  that  he  should  tie  his 
age,  and  for  that  matter,  succeeding  ages  to  him- 
self.    His  voluminous  correspondence  included  il- 

1  French  I^iterature,  i.  2  0p.  cit. 


lyo         John  Calvin:  The;  Statesman. 

lustrious  names.  To  give  but  a  handful,  we  find 
in  the  Hst  the  following:  Francis  I,  Henry  II, 
Edward  VI  of  England,  Anthony  of  Navarre,  Mar- 
guerite of  Valois,  the  Duchess  of  Ferrara,  Coligny, 
Luther,  Knox,  Cranmer,  Melanchthon,  Conde,  and 
many  others.  He  wrote  to  plain  and  needy  people 
with  frank  and  tender  solicitude,  and  to  the  poten- 
tates of  earth  with  candor  and  dignity.  To  the 
young  King  of  England  he  sent  the  following  mes- 
sage: 

"It  is  a  great  thing  to  be  a  king,  and  especially  of 
such  a  country;  and  yet  I  doubt  not  that  you  regard  it 
as  above  all  comparison  greater  to  be  a  Christian.  It  is 
indeed,  an  inestimable  privilege  that  God  has  granted  to 
you  sire,  that  you  should  be  a  Christian  king,  and  that 
you  should  serve  Him  as  His  lieutenant  to  uphold  the 
kingdom  of  Jesus  Christ  in  England." 

The  year  of  his  death  he  writes,  January  8, 
1564,  to  the  Duchess  of  Ferrara: 

"Madame,  I  pass  to  another  subject.  I  have  long 
had  a  great  wish  to  make  you  a  present  of  a  gold  piece. 
Think  how  bold  I  am;  but  because  I  supposed  you  had  a 
similar  one,  I  have  not  ventured  hitherto,  for  it  is  only 
its  rarity  that  can  give  it  any  value  in  your  esteem. 
Finally  I  have  delivered  it  to  the  bearer  to  show  to  you, 
and  if  it  is  a  novelty  to  you,  will  you  be  pleased  to  keep 
it?  It  is  the  finest  present  that  I  have  in  my  power  to 
make  you." 

This  was  a  gold  medal  which  her  father.  King 
Eouis  XII  had  caused  to  be  struck  at  the  time  of 
his   dispute   with   the   Pope,   Julius   II,   with  this 


CaIvVin — Thi:  Man.  171 

exergue:  "Perdam  Bahylonis  Nomen!" — I  will  de- 
stroy the  name  of  Babylon.  The  gift  was  very 
agreeable  to  the  daughter  of  the  King,  for  it  was  a 
fitting  reminder  of  her  own  stiff  resistance  to  the 
claims  of  the  Papacy. 

It  was  as  a  Commentator  that  he  reigned  su- 
preme in  his  day,  and,  for  that  matter  survives 
to-day.  Beginning  with  his  work  on  Romans  while 
in  Strassburg,  in  1540,  he  continued  until  the  year 
of  his  death  in  Geneva,  with  his  work  on  Joshua. 
A  more  extensive  series,  and  one  more  clear  and 
marked  with  spiritual  insight,  and  more  modern 
in  method,  was  not  produced  by  the  age  of  the 
Reformation.  Next  to  the  Institutes  and  to  the 
work  of  the  Academy,  Calvin's  Commentaries  rank 
for  influence  in  the  spread  of  his  ideas  throughout 
Europe  and  America. 

While  it  is  scarcely  in  place  In  so  brief  a  volume 
and  one  bent  to  state  the  more  permanent  features 
of  Calvin's  life  work,  to  elaborate  his  theological 
position,  somewhat  is  demanded  in  that  line.  Cal- 
vin's great  emphasis  was  upon  the  sovereignty  of 
God — ^the  holy,  just,  and  wise  ruler  of  the  universe. 
His  belief  in  the  supreme  authority  of  the  Bible ; 
his  conviction  that  man — made  in  the  image  of 
God — fell  into  deep  depravity,  totally  unable  to 
help  himself;  and  that  from  this  hopeless  state, 
some  men  are  freely  rescued  by  God's  undeserved 
mercy;  the  means  of  which  deliverance  is  Jesus 
Christ,  whose  indwelling  becomes  man's  personal 


172         John  Calvin:  The  State:sman. 

possession,  and  in  consequence  man  becomes  holy 
unto  God  and  elect  unto  God,  while  others  are 
plunged  into  hell  independent  of  any  demerit,  the 
sole  cause  of  salvation  or  of  loss  being  the  divine 
choice:  this  over-emphasis  of  the  Divine  side  is  a 
back  number  in  theology  to-day.  His  system  of 
theology  has  suffered  much  wear;  and  "the  larger 
part  of  the  Protestant  world,  even  in  the  Churches 
which  most  honor  his  memory,  has  turned  far 
aside  from  it."  ^  His  view  of  total  depravity  has 
gone  the  way  with  his  peculiar  estimate  of  the 
Holy  Scriptures  as  written  by  ''amanuenses"  of 
the  Holy  Ghost.  His  theory  of  the  penal  satisfac- 
tion of  the  Atonement  has  been  widely  abandoned. 
His  valuation  of  discipline  has  been  wholly  re- 
jected. Yet  his  profound  emphasis  upon  Christian 
intelligence,  his  primary  appeal  to  mind,  above  all 
his  high  premium  upon  character,  his  exaltation  of 
the  personal  nature  of  salvation,  these  abide. 

The  two  chief  errors  which  Guizot  lays  to  the 
charge  of  Calvin,  are  his  belief  in  the  infallibility 
of  the  verbal  statements  of  the  Bible,  and  his  doc- 
trine of  predestination.  It  was  around  the  second 
of  these  that  most  of  the  controversy  was  had 
between  the  Reformer  and  his  enemies  and  some  of 
his  friends.  Calvin's  own  words  well  state  the 
doctrine  of  the  two  destinies : 

"Predestination,  by  which  God  adopts  some  to  the 
hope  of  life,   and   adjudges  others  to   eternal   death,   no 


1  Walker.    John  Calvin,  p.  425. 


Calvin— The;  Man.  173 

one  desirous  of  the  credit  of  piety,  dares  absolutely  to 
deny.  .  .  .  Predestination  we  call  the  eternal  decree  of 
God,  by  which  he  has  determined  in  Himself,  what  he 
would  have  to  become  of  every  individual  of  mankind. 
For  they  are  not  all  created  with  a  similar  destiny;  but 
eternal  life  is  fore-ordained  for  some,  and  eternal  damna- 
tion for  others.  Every  man,  therefore,  being  created  for 
one  or  the  other  of  these  ends,  we  say,  he  is  predestinated 
either  to  life  or  death.  This  God  has  not  only  testified 
in  particular  persons,  but  has  given  us  a  specimen  of  it 
in  the  whole  posterity  of  Abraham,  which  should  evi- 
dently show  the  future  condition  of  every  nation  to  depend 
upon  His  decision."^ 

Yet  Calvin  did  not  go  beyond  Luther  in  his 
assertion  of  the  unfree  will  of  man.  While  Luther 
swept  away  many  mediaeval  doctrines,  he  did  not 
hesitate  to  make  God  responsible  for  the  ill  as  well 
as  for  the  good  in  the  world.  Strange,  both  in  the 
case  of  Luther  and  of  Calvin,  that  a  fervent  belief 
in  the  impotence  of  the  will  and  the  exercise  of  its 
fullest  mastery  should  have  characterized  the  two 
most  masterful  men  of  the  age.  The  paradox  has 
been  well  stated  by  Mark  Pattison:  "In  the  sup- 
pression of  the  liberties  of  Geneva  was  sown  the 
seed  of  the  liberties  of  Europe.  ...  By  the  de- 
moralizing touch  of  fatalism  was  evoked  a  moral 
energy  which  had  not  been  felt  since  the  era  of 
persecution."  ^ 

The  linked  perspective  of  Calvin's  theology 
brushed     aside,     not     only     sentiment,     but     also 


1  Bk,  3,  ch.  21,  No.  I.  2  Assays,  2-7. 


174         John  Calvin:  The:  Statesman. 

sympathy,  for  his  stern  logic  did  not  hesitate  to 
impute  to  God  the  will  to  separate  infants  into 
two  classes,  and  this  appears  in  the  Westminster 
Confession  which  teaches  that  "elect  infants  dying 
in  infancy,"  and  "all  other  elect  persons,  who  are 
incapable  of  being  outwardly  called  by  the  min- 
istry of  the  Word,  are  saved  by  Christ  through  the 
Spirit,  who  worketh  when,  and  where,  and  how  He 
pleaseth."  In  a  note  accompanying  his  discussion 
of  the  Creeds  of  the  Church,  Dr.  Schaff  adds: 
"Elect  infants,  however,  implies,  in  the  strict  Cal- 
vinistic  system,  'reprobate'  infants  who  are  lost. 
This  negative  feature  has  died  out."  ^ 

How  a  belief  so  oppugnant  to  the  gentler  mind 
of  the  present  century  could  have  held  sway  so 
long  has  puzzled  thousands,  yet  the  solution  of  the 
difficulty  is  not  so  far  to  seek.  In  the  long  per- 
spective of  the  Church's  advance  to  power  the 
doctrine  of  exclusive  salvation  had  a  mighty  effect. 
The  early  Church  Fathers  did  not  shrink  from  de- 
claring that  persons  external  to  the  Church  were 
under  a  sentence  of  condemnation.  The  Church 
according  to  a  favorite  image  of  the  Fathers,  was  a 
solitary  ark  floating  upon  a  shoreless  sea  of  ruin. 
If  they  were  not  unanimous  on  the  subject,  and  we 
must  except  Justin  Martyr  and  Clemens  Alexan- 
drinus,  of  whom  the  first  said  that  Socrates  was  in 
the  sight  of  God  a  Christian,  yet  the  great  majority 
took  the  narrower  view.  Pagans,  Jews  and  schis- 
matics were  doomed  to  eternal  fires. 

IP.  97. 


CAI.VIN— The:  Man.  175 

This  doctrine,  not  without  its  sustaining  might 
in  the  days  when  the  infant  Church  needed  to  for- 
tify itself  against  awful  persecutions,  reached  its 
climax  of  influence  in  the  days  when  the  spiritual 
authority  waged  war  against  the  diversities  of  pri- 
vate judgment,  put  a  moral  yoke  upon  ferocious 
tyrants,  and  went  far  to  abolish  slavery  in  Europe. 
The  doctrine  of  exclusive  salvation  was  tenaciously 
supported  by  practically  all  the  Reformers.  It  en- 
abled them  to  make  "the  anarchy  of  transition"  less 
perilous.  It  enabled  those  who  broke  away  from 
the  Romish  Church  to  defy  it.  Luther  and  Calvin 
agree  with  Aquinas  in  this.  Calvin  says :  "Beyond 
the  bosom  of  the  Church  no  remission  of  sins  is 
to  be  hoped  for,  nor  any  salvation."  With  this  the 
various  Confessions,  from  1551,  when  the  Saxon 
Confession  was  presented  to  the  Synod  of  Trent, 
to  the  "Humble  Advice  concerning  a  Confession 
of  Faith"  of  the  Presbyterian  divines  assembled  at 
Westminster,  1647,  stand  fast.  Zwingli  alone 
openly  repudiated  the  doctrine,  on  reading  whose 
statement  of  the  fact  Luther  said  he  had  no  hopes 
of  the  salvation  of  Zwingli. 

Few  men  have  proved  victor  in  immediate  de- 
bate as  often  as  Calvin  did.  Few  have  projected 
themselves  so  far  into  the  days  ahead.  Three  illus- 
trious citizens  of  Geneva  have  forever  bound  their 
names  to  the  city  by  the  lake.  Rousseau  was  born 
there  in  1712.  Madame  de  Stael  lifted  the  neigh- 
boring Coppet  to  the  notice  of  the  world.    Calvin's 


176         John  Cai^vin:  Th^  State:sman. 

place  in  the  city  we  know.  These  three  stand  for 
the  three  centuries.  The  cry  of  Calvin  is,  "Return 
to  the  Bible !"  That  of  Rousseau,  '^Return  to  Na- 
ture!" That  of  Madame  de  Stael,  "Return  to  the 
New  Humanity!"  But  the  voice  of  Calvin  is  still 
the  mightiest,  in  that  his  errors  were  those  of  his 
day,  while  the  truth  he  fought  for  is  for  all  time. 
Irony  may  feast  on  his  treatment  of  Cruet,  one  of 
the  first  victims  of  the  new  regime,  who  adopted 
the  Bernese  fashion  of  wearing  breeches  with 
slashes  and  plaits  at  the  knees,  and  pinned  a  warn- 
ing to  Calvin's  pulpit,  calling  him  a  "gross  hypo- 
crite," who  was  tortured  and  beheaded;  or  to  his 
contention  with  Ami  Perrin,  military  chief  of  the 
republic,  whom  Calvin  nicknamed  the  "stage  em- 
peror," and  banished,  and  with  him  his  gay  and 
sharp-tongued  wife ;  or  to  his  victory  over  Ameaux, 
who,  for  declaring  Calvin  a  heretic  and  nothing  but 
a  Picard,  was  paraded  through  the  streets  of 
Geneva  in  his  shirt,  head  bare,  and  a  torch  in  his 
hand,  and  ended  on  his  knees  for  pardon.  Yet  over 
against  this  one  should  picture  the  man  of  iron 
who  once  quelled  a  popular  fury  by  walking  un- 
armed into  the  crowd  and  calling  to  the  people 
to  begin  with  him  if  they  must  shed  blood.  He 
surely  was  a  real  man.  He  was  candid.  He  was 
sure  of  himself.  He  was  wonderfully  gifted,  a 
prodigious  toiler,  a  man,  too,  with  a  mighty  con- 
viction of  duty,  intense,  hard  towards  his  enemies, 
faithful  to  his  friends,  never  saving  himself  when 
the  kingdom  of  God  was  in  any  peril. 


Calvin — Thi:  Man.  177 

The  complete  triumph  of  Calvin  in  Geneva  was 
reached  by  the  year  1555.  The  Perrinists  were 
defeated;  his  majority  in  the  Council  was  assured; 
the  increasing  influence  of  French  refugees  of  high 
social  position  was  more  and  more  felt  in  the  pub- 
lic life  of  the  city;  the  new  generation  began  to 
give  him  full  honor,  and  when  a  simple-minded 
refugee  spoke  of  him  as  "Brother  Calvin,"  he  was 
quickly  told  that  the  only  proper  term  in  Geneva 
was  "Master  Calvin."  All  this,  too,  though  he 
was  simply  a  pastor  and  teacher,  without  any  offi- 
cial title.  His  plain  living  was  unchanged,  though 
his  house  was  the  center  of  attraction  to  distin- 
guished visitors  from  foreign  lands.  His  ability 
to  work  as  if  he  were  endowed  with  a  giant's  frame 
ceased  not  till  near  the  close  of  his  life.  A  vast 
acquaintance  and  a  few  intimates  marked  his  social 
life.  So  he  drew  on  to  the  close  of  an  honored 
career.  Struggle,  rebuff,  and  neglect  gave  way 
to  a  recognition  which  was  open  and  a  reverence 
which  was  real. 

The  crown  of  his  work  was  reached  in  the 
establishment  of  the  academy.  Though  his  work 
in  Geneva  was  primarily  religious,  yet  his  appre- 
ciation of  industrial  and  educational  agencies  was 
pronounced,  and  reveals  the  statesmanlike  quality 
of  his  mind.  He  urged  the  Little  Council  to  de- 
velop the  weaving  industry,  and  showed  for  his  day 
liberal  views  upon  the  question  of  trade. 

Above  all  he  was  concerned  that  Geneva  should 
12 


178         John  Calvin:  Ths;  Statesman. 

become  an  intellectual  people.  He  had  utmost  con- 
fidence in  the  place  of  trained  brains.  By  1556 
he  was  free  enough  from  his  strife  with  opposition 
to  push  his  plans  for  the  founding  of  a  great  school, 
and  make  the  "College"  a  permanent  institution. 
The  buildings  which  have  largely  remained  till 
now  were  begun  in  1558,  and  a  current  of  gifts 
was  started  which  in  a  few  more  years  swelled 
to  capital  proportions.  Noble  assistants  came  to  his 
aid,  among  them  the  Greek  scholar  of  Lausanne, 
Theodore  Beza,  who  succeeded  him  as  chief  pastor 
of  Geneva,  and  head  of  the  Swiss  Protestants.  The 
success  of  the  Academy  was  great,  both  in  the  im- 
mediate and  the  far  future.  It  was  a  final  step 
towards  the  realization  of  Calvin's  ideal  of  a  Chris- 
tian commonwealth.  Its  molding  power  not  only 
in  Geneva,  but  throughout  Europe,  defies  the  closest 
search.  Next  to  the  Institutes  the  Academy  sur- 
passed all  other  forces  in  the  spread  and  the  per- 
petuation of  Calvin's  noblest  thought  and  plan  for 
the  Reformed  Churches. 

For  twenty-three  years  Calvin  labored  in  Ge- 
neva, and  then  passed  on  to  others  the  system  of 
his  making.  He  died  in  the  height  of  his  mental 
powers,  May  2y,  1564,  the  same  year  with  Michel- 
angelo, and,  too,  the  same  year  in  which  both 
Shakespeare  and  Galileo  were  born.  The  reform- 
er's urgent  spirit  refused  to  yield  to  his  multiply- 
ing maladies,  aches  of  head  and  joints,  gravel,  dys- 
pepsia, fever,  and  asthma.    When  unable  to  walk 


Calvin — The  Man.  179 

he  was  carried  to  church  in  a  chair.  He  preached 
his  last  sermon  on  the  6th  of  February,  1564.  On 
the  25th  of  April  he  made  his  last  will.  In  it  are 
heard  all  the  notes  of  his  great  character,  his  genu- 
ine humility,  his  complete  reliance  upon  the  grace 
of  God,  his  declaration  of  a  most  sincere  purpose 
in  all  his  battles  for  the  truth,  to  which  he  had  con- 
secrated his  genius,  his  passion  for  the  cause  of  the 
Reformed  Church,  and  not  a  word  of  bitterness 
against  his  enemies,  or  even  mention  of  them,  save 
in  this  sentence:  "I  also  testify  and  declare  that, 
in  all  the  contentions  and  disputations  in  which  I 
have  been  engaged  with  the  enemies  of  the  gospel, 
I  have  used  no  impostures,  no  wicked  and  sophis- 
tical devices,  but  have  acted  candidly  and  sincerely 
in  defending  the  truth."  He  leaves  his  little  prop- 
erty to  be  disposed  of  by  his  brother,  Antoine  Cal- 
vin, after  the  payment  of  all  debts.  On  the  26th 
of  April  the  senators  came  in  a  body  to  see  him, 
and  were  addressed  by  the  patriarch,  thanking 
them  for  their  support,  and  begging  their  pardon 
for  his  displays  of  anger,  and  leaving  them  his  ex- 
hortations to  preserve  the  doctrine  and  discipline 
to  which  he  had  given  his  life.  On  the  28th  he 
received  the  ministers  of  Geneva,  and  took  each 
one  by  the  hand  in  final  and  affectionate  farewell. 
On  the  19th  of  May  he  invited  the  ministers  to  his 
house  for  a  simple  repast,  had  himself  borne  into 
the  adjoining  room,  where  he  tasted  a  little  food 
in  company  with  them,  and  was  then  carried  back 


i8o         John  Cai^vin:  The:  State:sman. 

to  the  bed  which  he  never  left  until  the  day  of  his 
death.  In  the  grip  of  excruciating  pains  he  spent 
his  last  days  in  frequent  quotations  of  the  comfort- 
ing words  of  the  Bible.  He  was  heard  to  use  often 
the  ninth  verse  of  the  thirty-ninth  Psalm:  "Thou 
bruisest  me,  O  Lord,  but  it  is  enough  for  me  that 
it  is  Thy  hand."  About  eight  o'clock  on  Saturday, 
the  27th  of  May,  he  fell  peacefully  asleep,  conscious 
to  the  last  breath,  says  Beza.  According  to  his 
expressed  wish  he  was  buried  without  pomp  in  the 
Plain  Palais  Cemetery,  during  the  afternoon  of 
Sunday,  the  28th. 

The  minute  accounts  of  his  last  days,  given  by 
Beza  and  other  intimate  friends,  are  an  utter  refutal 
of  the  hideous  stories  told  by  Bolsec  fifteen  years 
after  Calvin  died,  and  retailed  by  Audin  and, 
strange  to  say,  even  by  Dr.  M.  J.  Spalding,  Roman 
Catholic  Archbishop,  who  does  not  hesitate  to  ve- 
neer the  vilest  slanders  against  the  Reformer's  good 
name  with  such  a  statement  as  this :  "The  early  Cal- 
vinists  were  hypocrites,  and  their  boasted  austerity 
was  little  better  than  a  sham,  if  it  was  not  even 
a  cloak  to  cover  enormous  wickedness."  This  is 
worse  than  libel ;  it  is  caricature.  It  is  too  ridicu- 
lous to  be  offensive. 

When  Pope  Pius  IV  heard  of  the  death  of  Cal- 
vin, he  said:  "The  strength  of  that  heretic  con- 
sisted in  this,  that  money  never  had  the  slightest 
charm  for  him.  If  I  had  such  servants,  my  domin- 
ions would  extend  from  sea  to  sea." 


.  CaIvVin— The:  Man.  i8i 

The  stranger  asks  for  the  spot  where  Calvin 
was  buried.  A  plain  stone  with  the  letters  "J-  ^•" 
is  pointed  out,  no  one  knows  by  what  authority. 
The  old  man  who  showed  the  stone  to  Dr.  Tulloch 
seemed  to  have  little  other  idea  of  Calvin's  work 
than  that  of  the  man  who  limited  the  number  of 
dishes  at  dinner, — the  memory  of  the  sumptuary 
laws  of  the  great  autocrat  of  Geneva  being  thus 
preserved  by  a  popular  tradition  in  which  the  ludi- 
crous and  the  melancholy  are  oddly  mixed.  Speak- 
ing of  Calvin's  grave,  Henry  says :  "Respecting  his 
last  will,  the  Genevese  neither  raised  a  monument 
to  his  memory  nor  marked  his  grave  with  a  stone. 
There  in  the  church-yard,  which  is  so  decorated 
with  the  tombs  of  others,  the  grave  of  Calvin  is 
unmarked  and  unknown." 

In  this  he  shared  the  lot  of  Moses. 


CHAPTER  XI. 
STATESMANSHIP. 

In  his  thorough  grasp  of  the  reHgious  situation 
of  Europe  Calvin  surpassed  all  men  of  his  day, 
and  Geneva  was  simply  the  fulcrum  which  he  used 
to  lift  upon  a  firm  basis  the  work  of  the  Reformed 
Churches.  He  had  many  advantages  denied  to 
other  reformers;  he  was  the  most  widely  traveled, 
the  most  remarkable  correspondent,  and  for  years 
before  his  death  the  most  renowned  and  influential 
religious  leader  of  his  day.  A  holy  contagion 
spread  from  Geneva,  and  its  type  of  self-governing 
and  strictly  disciplined  Church  was  firmly  planted 
where  governments  were  hostile,  as  well  as  in  lands 
that  gave  his  system  hearty  welcome.  France,  the 
Netherlands,  England,  Scotland,  Poland,  Hungary, 
Germany,  and  to  the  far  West,  America,  have  traced 
back  to  the  tiny  city  by  the  lake  the  sources  of  their 
peculiar  types  of  Protestantism,  not  excluding  ad- 
ditions which  later  history  has  developed  in  some 
of  them. 

Geneva  became  a  veritable  asylum  to  Calvin's 
own  countrymen,  and  as  they  came  with  scars  of 
their  torture,  and  emerged  from  the  passes  of  the 
182 


State:smanship.  183 

Jura,  and  caught  sight  of  the  city  in  which  Calvin 
ruled,  they  fell  upon  their  knees  and  gave  thanks 
to  God.  They  made  good  their  stay,  and  joined 
with  those  who  had  preceded  them  in  strenuous 
efforts  to  promote  the  cause  of  Protestantism.  Ge- 
neva contained  thirty  printing-presses,  and  sent 
forth  an  endless  supply  of  material  for  the  expan- 
sion of  the  truth.  Calvin  was  consulted  at  every 
stage  of  the  progress  of  the  French  Reformation, 
and  was  called  as  pastor  of  the  first  Protestant 
Church  in  Paris,  but  declined.  He  gave  the  Hugue- 
nots their  creed  and  polity,  sent  messengers  with 
letters  to  comfort  sufferers  and  prisoners  who  had 
renounced  their  old-time  faith,  and  as  one  of  his 
biographers  records  his  interest:  "As  the  eye  of 
a  father  watches  over  his  children,  Calvin  watched 
with  untiring  care  of  love  over  all  these  relations 
in  their  manifold  ramifications,  and  sought  to  be 
the  same  to  the  great  community  of  his  brethren  in 
France  what  he  was  to  the  little  Republic  at  home."^ 
His  course  at  the  time  of  the  Amboise  conspiracy 
reflects  honor  upon  his  name,  for  contrary  to  the 
charge  of  Bossuet  Calvin  was  opposed  to  the  plot 
of  the  few  against  the  power  of  the  Guises,  and 
warned  them  against  its  execution  and  predicted 
its  failure.  In  the  awful  persecutions  which  fell 
upon  the  devoted  Church  of  his  planting,  his  spirit 
animated  every  congregation  and  brightened  the 
path  of  every  victim  through  his  darkest  hours. 


IStahelin,  i,  507. 


1S4         John  Calvin:  Tut  State^sman. 

The  phases  of  French  Protestantism  were  three : 
first,  an  amorphous  period ;  second,  one  of  more  or 
less  sturdy  expansion;  third,  one  of  active  inter- 
est in  the  poHtical  concerns  of  the  State.  It  began 
with  emphasis  upon  two  principles ;  that  of  free 
inquiry,  and  that  of  individualism.  But  these  did 
not  furnish  the  cohesive  power  so  soon  to  be  de- 
manded in  resisting  the  foes  sworn  to  the  extirpa- 
tion of  all  heretics.  The  second  phase  began  with 
the  issue  of  Calvin's  Institutes.  And  though  the 
new  cohesive  power  was  gained  at  the  expense  of 
a  weakening  of  the  earlier  principles,  nothing  short 
of  the  splendid  order  introduced  by  Calvin  into  his 
system  of  thought  and  government  could  be  ex- 
pected to  offset  the  equally  great  system  just  then 
rising  above  the  horizon  in  the  work  of  the  Jesuits. 

By  the  year  1547  the  Reformation  had  leavened 
seventeen  provinces  and  thirty-three  of  the  prin- 
cipal towns  of  France.  The  model  was  that  of  the 
Church  of  Strassburg,  founded  by  Calvin  in  1536. 
In  eleven  years,  from  1555  to  1566,  no  less  than  one 
hundred  and  twenty  pastors  were  sent  to  France 
from  Geneva.  The  French  Reformers  had  held 
their  meetings  for  worship  and  consultation  at  such 
times  and  places  as  the  exigencies  of  the  moment 
allowed.  But  on  the  25th  of  May,  1559,  a  general 
synod  of  all  Protestant  congregations  in  France 
was  deliberately  convened  in  Paris.  The  ecclesi- 
astical system  adopted  at  this  synod  was  dictated 
by  Calvin.    In  it  one  may  see  the  mind  of  the  ec- 


Statejsmanship.  185 

cleslastical  statesman.  The  Confession  of  Faith 
which  makes  up  the  preface  is  an  epitome  of  Cal- 
vin's Institutes.  The  criterion  of  truth  was  the  re- 
vealed Word  of  God.  Following  this  comes  the 
organization  of  the  local  Church,  in  which  it  was 
ordered  that  the  members  of  each  body  of  the 
faithful  should  elect  a  consistory  (a  body  of  ruling 
elders),  for  calling  a  minister  and  celebrating  the 
sacraments.  A  certain  number  of  such  Churches 
was  to  form  a  conference  organized  upon  the  basis 
of  representatives,  elders,  and  ministers.  The  King- 
dom of  France  was  divided  into  provinces  (sixteen 
being  the  usual  number),  with  a  provincial  synod 
to  be  held  annually  in  each  section,  composed  of 
all  the  ministers  in  the  precincts  and  of  one  elder 
from  each  local  Church.  Crowning  this  was  a 
national  synod,  to  meet  once  in  each  year,  com- 
posed of  two  ministers  and  two  elders  to  represent 
each  of  the  provincial  synods.  Such  was  the  Na- 
tional Church  of  France.  One  has  only  to  substi- 
tute for  these  titles  the  words  presbyteries,  kirk 
sessions,  and  general  assembly,  and  the  National 
Church  of  Scotland  is  before  him  in  prototype. 

The  scenes  of  trial  through  which  the  spiritual 
children  of  Calvin  walked  with  the  tread  of  heroes 
bear  bright  witness  to  the  power  of  an  invisible 
hand  upon  a  distant  crisis.  History  stands  with 
uncovered  head  in  the  presence  of  men  and  women 
who  need  no  other  monument  of  their  faith  than 
the  story  of  how  they  faced  the  destruction  of  home 


i86         John  Cai^vin:  The;  Statesman. 

and  the  death  of  their  dear  ones.  In  the  old  Bastile 
a  venerable  man  is  standing  in  chains  before  Henry 
III.  The  king  exclaims:  "Recant,  or  I  shall  be 
compelled  to  give  you  up  to  your  enemies;  these 
two  girls  here  are  to  be  burned  to-morrow." 

"Sir,"  said  Palissy  the  potter,  "listen  to  me, 
and  I  will  teach  you  the  way  to  talk  like  a  king: 
/  can  not  be  compelled  to  do  wrong/' 

Another  scene  is  witnessed  on  the  balcony  of 
Coligny.  The  wife  of  the  noble,  Charlotte  de  La- 
val, is  sitting  by  his  side ;  "Husband,  why  do  you 
not  openly  avow  your  faith,  as  your  brother  Andelols 
has  done?" 

"Sound  your  own  soul,"  he  replied;  ''are  you 
willing  to  be  chased  into  exile  with  your  children, 
and  to  see  your  husband  hunted  to  the  death?  I 
will  give  you  three  weeks  to  consider,  and  then  I 
will  take  your  advice."  She  looked  her  husband 
steadily  in  the  eye  through  her  tears.  "Husband, 
the  three  weeks  are  ended ;  do  your  duty,  and  leave 
us  to  God."  So  Coligny  becomes  a  file  leader  in 
French  history. 

In  the  flight  of  every  forlorn  Huguenot,  brav- 
ing risks  and  hardships  incredible  to  the  bigoted 
libertine  who  idled  life  away  with  the  courtesans 
of  Versailles,  one  might  read  the  overthrow  of  the 
faith  of  Calvin,  but  in  another  interpretation  of  the 
devotion  of  the  runaways  one  might  discover  a 
parallel  to  the  emigration  of  Abraham,  "who  went 
out,  not  knowing  whither  he  went." 


Statesmanship.  187 

The  "Church  of  the  Desert,"  as  that  of  the 
Huguenots  was  styled,  with  its  motto — The  Burn- 
ing Bush — though  widely  scattered,  had  the  power 
to  unify  and  to  organize  its  members  on  every  soil 
it  touched.  In  Germany,  where  Calvin  had  labored 
for  three  years,  the  Reformed  Church  developed 
into  a  strong  branch  of  Universal  Protestantism. 
There  it  expressed  itself  in  the  Heidelberg  Cate- 
chism, "the  most  widely  accepted  symbol  of  the 
Calvinistic  faith."  In  Hungary  it  gained  a  firm 
foothold,  and  to-day  two-thirds  of  the  Evangelical 
population,  about  one-seventh  of  the  inhabitants, 
are  in  Churches  Calvinistic  in  origin  and  polity.^ 
In  Holland  none  of  the  hellish  devices  of  their  ene- 
mies availed  to  daunt  the  courage  or  even  to  seri- 
ously check  the  progress  of  the  Dutch  Protestants. 
It  was  there,  as  has  been  remarked  by  Dr.  Schaff, 
that  we  must  look  to  find  the  practical  and  eccles- 
istical  part  of  Calvin's  total  contribution  of  more 
value  than  his  theological.  This  will  explain  why 
the  Dutch  Reformed  Church,  after  having  first 
expelled  Arminianism,  which  was  "the  necessary 
and  wholesome  reaction  against  scholastic  Calvin- 
ism," was  allowed  to  return  to  Holland  after  the 
death  of  Maurice,  and  gradually  pervaded  the  na- 
tional Church.  It  was  not  so  much  the  doctrine 
of  predestination,  as  the  organizing  skill  of  Calvin, 
that  kept  Hollander  and  Scot  true  to  his  vow,  and 
expert  in  saving  the  Church  from  disintegration. 


1  Walker's  Calvin,  p.  39s. 


iSS         John  Cai^vin:  Th^  Statesman. 

The  fact  to  which  attention  has  been  called  in 
an  earlier  chapter  falls  into  line.  In  his  "Intel- 
lectual Development  of  Europe"  Dr.  Draper  re- 
marks :  "A  reason  for  the  sudden  loss  of  expansive 
force  in  the  Reformation  is  found  in  its  own  in- 
trinsic nature.  The  principle  of  decomposition 
which  it  represented,  and  with  which  it  was  inex- 
tricably entangled,  necessarily  implied  oppug- 
nancy."  Doubtless  this  did  breed  dissensions  among 
the  Protestants,  and  they  became  an  army  divided 
against  itself,  in  peril  of  surrendering  to  a  watch- 
ful and  united  foe.  It  is  true,  too,  that  Protestant- 
ism, unlike  its  formidable  antagonist,  contained  "no 
fundamental  principle  that  could  combine  distant 
communities  and  foreign  countries  together  ;  it  orig- 
inated in  dissent,  and  was  embodied  by  separation. 
It  could  not  possess  a  concentrated  power,  nor  rec- 
ognize one  apostolic  man  who  might  compress  its 
disputes,  harmonize  its  powers,  and  wield  it  as  a 
mass."  This  observation  is  in  the  main  true, 
but  it  fails  to  do  justice  to  the  one  man  who 
succeeded  in  typing  completely  the  aggressive 
power  of  Protestantism,  and  worthy  of  its  honors, 
John  Calvin.  The  Reformation,  which  was  begun 
as  criticism,  did  not  end  in  destruction.  It  devel- 
oped the  spirit  of  free  inquiry  among  peoples  who 
were  working  out  the  problems  of  constitutional 
government,  and  became  constructive  of  agencies 
which  were  wise,  practical,  and  successful  in  the 
founding  of  mighty  nations. 


Statejsmanship.  189 

Yet  it  is  to  Scotland  that  one  must  go  for  fullest 
proof  of  the  amazing  and  immediate  might  of  the 
new  faith.  Calvin's  influence  upon  this  part  of  the 
English-speaking  world  was  unique.  Discipline,  pol- 
ity, and  doctrine  were  stamped  with  his  genius. 
Through  the  direct  agency  of  another  Calvin  gained 
Scotland  for  the  Reformation,  for  what  he  was  to 
Geneva,  and  Luther  to  Germany,  John  Knox  was 
to  the  land  of  his  birth.  The  five  years  of  his  exile 
(1554-1^59),  spent  mostly  in  Geneva,  made  him 
thoroughly  familiar  with  the  "most  perfect  school 
of  Christ  that  ever  was  since  the  days  of  the 
Apostles,"  as  he  said. 

Knox  even  outdid  Calvin  in  his  fiery  energy  for 
the  redemption  of  his  people.  His  labors  are  too 
well  told  in  another  volume  of  this  series  to  call 
for  elaboration  here.  But  one  scene  in  his  daugh- 
ter's life  reveals  the  temper  of  soul  before  which 
all  opposition  was  as  chaff.  Mrs.  Welch  was  seek- 
ing before  the  King  of  England,  James  I,  the  re- 
turn of  her  banished  husband.  The  King  told  her 
he  would  grant  it  if  she  would  persuade  her  hus- 
band to  submit  to  the  bishops.  "Please,  your 
Majesty,"  said  the  heroic  woman,  lifting  up  her 
apron  and  extending  it  towards  the  King  as  if  in 
the  act  of  receiving  her  husband's  severed  head 
from  the  ax,  "I  'd  rather  kep  his  head  there !" 

The  Kirk  in  Scotland  got  into  history  in  mem- 
orable fashion.  The  people  were  for  the  most  part 
poor,  and  when  they  became  a  power  in  the  State 


iQo         John  Cai^vin:  Th^  State:sman. 

they  did  not  lean  to  costly  shows,  ceremonies,  ritual, 
and  processions.  Government  by  the  majority  was 
in  order.  Lecky  says,  "The  Kirk  was  essentially 
republican."  Says  Froude:  "The  Scottish  Com- 
mons are  the  sons  of  their  religion;  they  are  so 
because  that  religion  taught  them  equality  of  man." 
The  preacher  was  called  to  his  work  by  the  elec- 
tion of  the  congregation,  not  by  the  appointment 
of  king  or  bishop. 

It  has  been  reserved  for  a  Frenchman,  and  that 
too  not  of  the  faith  of  Calvin,  to  lift  praise  to  its 
highest  height.  Taine  says  of  the  Calvinists :  "They 
founded  England  in  spite  of  the  corruption  of  the 
Stuarts;  .  .  .  they  founded  Scotland;  they 
founded  the  United  States ;  at  this  day  they  are 
by  their  descendants  founding  Australia  and  colon- 
izing the  world."^  As  this  volume  is  not  so  much 
a  eulogy  as  an  analysis,  it  will  be  well  to  inquire 
further  into  this. 

Bancroft  is  correct  in  saying  that  "the  right 
exercised  by  each  congregation  of  electing  its  own 
ministers  was  in  itself  a  moral  revolution."^  This 
certainly  did  not  fit  in  with  the  older  plan  of  rule 
in  England,  and  King  James  I  was  true  to  his  habit 
of  thought  when  he  declared,  "Presbytery  agreeth 
as  well  with  monarchy  as  God  and  the  devil." 
Whatever  came  later  in  the  age  on  the  favorable 
soil  of  America,  it  is  certain  that  the  long  struggle 
between  the  Stuarts  and  the  Nonconformists  in  the 


1  Eng.  I,it.    2-472. 


Statesmanship.  191 

seventeenth  century  failed  to  turn  England  over  to 
the  Geneva  school  of  statesmen,  though  theologic- 
ally the  latter  made  good  in  the  famous  Westmin- 
ster Confession. 

Imperfect  beginnings  were  made  by  Luther, 
Zwingli,  and  Calvin.  They  looked  for  complete- 
ness of  their  partial  work  in  another  age.^  In 
1526,  Francis  Lambert,  of  Avignon,  proposed  for 
the  Churches  of  Hesse  a  scheme  of  ecclesiastical 
order  which  never  went  into  operation  there.  It 
"contemplates  the  formation  of  a  pure  congrega- 
tion of  true  believers,  in  which  the  right  of  ecclesi- 
astical self-government  should  be  exercised  imme- 
diately by  the  congregation,  not  mediately  through 
representatives  and  delegates."  Another  part  of 
the  platform  made  provision  for  a  yearly  synod  of 
the  Churches  to  be  "composed  of  the  assembled 
pastors  and  of  delegates  chosen  immediately  before 
in  the  Church  meetings."  However,  the  plan  did 
not  prevail.  Neither  Luther  nor  Melanchthon 
thought  the  time  ripe  for  the  introduction  of  a 
simple  evangelical  Church  polity. 

The  scheme  of  Calvin  expressed  itself  in  both 
the  Congregational  and  the  Presbyterian  Churches ; 
in  the  former  through  the  Brownist  or  Independent 
movement,  in  England,  Holland,  and  New  Eng- 
land; in  the  latter  in  Scotland,  England,  and  other 
than  the  New  England  Colonies  of  the  Western 
World.     The  doctrine  of  Calvin  filled  the  pulpits 

iGieseler's  Eccl.  Hist.,  4,  520. 


192         John  Cai^vin:  Thi:  Statesman. 

of  both  branches,  the  polity  of  only  one.  In  both 
the  emphasis  upon  lay  share  in  government  had 
large  fruitage;  in  neither  has  the  emphasis  upon 
what  were  the  peculiar  doctrines  of  Calvinism,  pre- 
destination, election,  reprobation,  survived  the  at- 
tacks of  modern  thought  and  the  growing  passion 
for  offering  to  all  men  a  free  gospel. 

It  is  to  the  growth  of  the  idea  of  lay  share  in 
political  life  that  we  are  to  look  for  the  proof  that 
the  Reformation  is  in  a  deep  sense  the  father  of 
modern  democracy.  It  is  not  that  Calvin  was  the 
exclusive  founder  of  the  modern  democratic  state. 
;His  trend  of  thought  was  aristocratic,  and  his  dis- 
/  trust  of  the  plain  man  prevented  him  from  giving 
■  the  layman  that  tremendous  share  in  government 
which  has  fallen  to  his  lot  in  our  days.  Yet  despite 
Calvin's  temperamental  exclusiveness,  the  humble 
man  has  entered  into  his  kingdom,  partly  by  the 
measure  of  honor  allowed  him  by  Calvin,  and 
largely  by  the  inevitable  drift  of  Calvin's  larger 
conception  of  man's  relation  to  God  and  human 
rulers,  and  the  steady  thrust  of  the  ages  towards 
democracy. 

How  the  seeds  of  Calvinism  vitalized  the  Eng- 
lish-speaking communities  and  promoted  demo- 
cratic hopes  and  practices,  has  been  very  clearly 
stated  by  Professor  Charles  Borgeaud,  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Geneva.  In  his  ''Rise  of  Modern  Democ- 
racy in  Old  and  New  England,"  1894,  he  has  de- 
voted himself  to  the  history  of  democratic  ideas 


Statesmanship.  193 

and  schemes  of  government.  In  his  studies  of 
ancient  democracies  he  reached  a  somewhat  nega- 
tive result;  namely,  that  the  most  permanent  con- 
tribution of  ancient  democracy  was  a  new  concep- 
tion of  law.  This  possessed  primarily  a  religious 
character,  a  revelation  of  the  will  of  Heaven,  but 
was,  by  the  operation  of  popular  suffrage,  secular- 
ized. In  the  East  the  original  stamp  prevailed, 
and  Law  remained  fixed,  without  flux  or  movement. 
In  the  West  it  became  human  and  progressive.  But 
this  conception  was  more  or  less  lost  in  the  gloom 
of  the  Middle  Ages.  The  Renaissance  and  Refor- 
mation and  the  political  revolutions  of  the  seven- 
teenth and  eighteenth  centuries  inaugurated  this 
conception  of  the  modern  State.  The  source  of  the 
modern'  State  with  its  written  Constitution  is  trace- 
able to  the  work  of  the  Reformers  in  the  sixteenth 
century.  In  this  Professor  Borgeaud  has  found  a 
yokefellow  in  Professor  H.  L.  Osgood,  who  says: 
"Calvinism,  in  spite  of  the  aristocratic  character 
which  it  temporarily  assumed,  meant  democracy 
in  Church  government.  .  .  ."  Calvinists  *'did 
not  need  to  search  the  records  of  antiquity  to  find 
communities  where  the  theory  of  human  equality 
was  approximately  realized.  The  local  Church 
furnished  a  much  better  model  than  any  Greek 
State.  The  theory  upon  which  it  was  based  was 
easily  transferred  to  the  domain  of  politics."  In 
the  bitter  strifes  between  Cavalier  and  Puritan  is 
to  be  found  in  the  "Agreement  of  the  People,"  put 
13 


194         John  Calvin:  The  State:sman. 

forward  by  Puritan  officers,  the  first  expression  of 
the  fundamental  principles  of  modern  democracy. 
The  significance  of  the  scheme  has  been  generally 
neglected  by  English  historians,  even  Hallani,  the 
judicious,  passing  it  by  without  slightest  mention, 
while  Gardiner  criticises  its  suggestions  "as  but 
the  dreams  of  a  few  visionaries." 

The  scheme  v/as  more  than  a  dream.  The  drafts 
of  the  proposed  Constitution  appeared  three  sepa- 
rate times,  all  with  the  same  name,  in  1647,  1648, 
and  1649.  'I'he  discussions  they  aroused  afforded 
the  people  opportunity  to  become  familiar  with  the 
idea  of  a  written  constitution.  And  though  the  ''in- 
substantial fabric"  created  by  Cromwell's  officers 
fell  in  the  clash  of  swords,  the  idea  defeated  in  Old 
England  struck  firm  root  in  the  New,  and  the 
dream  of  Puritan  visionaries  in  the  seventeenth 
century  became  the  corner-stone  of  giant  States  in 
the  eighteenth. 

Though  the  Reformation,  and  not  the  reform- 
ers, must  be  credited  with  the  democracy  of  mod- 
ern times,  it  is  true  that  the  levers  used  by  Calvin — 
the  two  principles  of  free  inquiry,  and  the  priest- 
hood of  all  believers — to  break  the  power  of  the 
Holy  See,  gave  legal  character  to  the  religious 
revolution,  and  contained  the  seeds  of  the  political 
revolution,  which  was  inevitably  linked  with  the 
earlier  one.  It  was  a  long  path  to  the  democracy 
of  the  Apostolic  Church,  and  an  immediate  return 
meant  a  serious  break  with  current  ideas.    The  re- 


Statesmanship.  195 

formers  entered  the  path  either  ignorant  of  the 
end,  or  beHeving  themselves  able  to  stop  short  of 
the  end.  But  once  in,  they  proved  leaders  of  a  pro- 
cession whose  ultimate  power  outran  their  will  to 
control.  In  his  theory  of  equality  of  all  men  in 
the  Church,  Calvin  declared  the  authority  of  the 
faithful  to  choose  their  leaders.  "But  when  the 
J  political  question  arose  in  Geneva  in  connection 
with  the  religious  question,  the  man  took  the  upper 
hand  and  his  work  became  aristocratic."^  The 
forms  he  imposed  upon  the  exercise  of  the  power 
of  the  faithful  made  their  authority  illusory.  How- 
ever, the  principle  remained,  and  with  mighty  con- 
sequences. The  right  of  the  congregation  became 
fact,  and  in  due  time  came  forth  clad  in  the  shape 
of  the  sovereignty  of  the  people. 

When  we  remember  that  it  was  two  and  a  half 
centuries  ago  that  the  English  democrats  made 
bold  to  proclaim  their  faith,  1648-9,  and  how  far 
they  were  in  advance  of  their  day,  we  scarcely 
wonder  that  another  tirfie  and  another  land  were 
required  for  the  complete  outworking  of  their 
scheme.  They  could  not  expect  compliance  with 
their  views  from  the  great  Cromwell.  He  was  like 
a  shipmaster  in  a  storm,  holding  everything  in  sub- 
jection to  his  will  between  contending  factions  un- 
til some  harbor  should  be  reached.  Cromwell  was 
the  leader  of  the  Independents,  as  against  the  Epis- 
copalians and  the  Presbyterians.    Yet  he  was  un- 


iBorgeaud,  5. 


196         John  Calvin:  The  Statesman. 

able  to  look  with  any  favor  upon  the  plan  of  the 
Independents,  who  were  backing  up  the  "Agree- 
ment of  the  People"  so  long  as  the  contention  be- 
tween his  cause  and  that  of  the  Cavaliers  was  hang- 
ing in  the  balance.  In  the  main  the  triumph  of 
Independency  was  the  triumph  of  toleration  and 
republicanism,  but  it  was  not  to  be  won  in  the 
years  immediately  following  Marston  Moor,  and 
when  the  king's  head  was  the  stake  in  1649.  With- 
out knowing  how  far  his  words  would  carry,  Crom- 
well said  in  1648:  "Every  single  man  is  judge  of 
just  and  right,  as  to  the  good  and  ill  of  a  king- 
dom." Yet  he  was  no  democrat.  Like  all  truly 
great  men,  Cromwell  loved  order,  and  the  propo- 
sition of  the  officers  fathering  the  "Agreement" 
tended  for  the  while  to  a  break  both  with  the  king 
and  the  Parliament,  and  even  with  the  lieutenant- 
general  himself. 

The  "Agreement"  was  turned  down  by  Parlia- 
ment as  a  seditious  document.  The  army  was 
called  to  rendezvous  at  Ware  in  sections  by  the 
cautious  Fairfax,  yet  stubborn  men  were  found  by 
thousands  among  the  rank  and  file,  and  some  officers 
of  the  line,  who  wore  on  their  hats  copies  of 
-the  "Agreement  of  the  People,"  with  the  motto, 
"England's  Freedom  and  Soldiers'  Rights,"  in  cap- 
ital letters  on  the  outside.  Cromwell  rode  up.  "Re- 
move me  that  paper !"  he  said.  The  refusal  of  the 
soldiers  and  their  complaints  aroused  him,  and  rid- 
ing roughly  among  the  ranks  he  commanded  the 


State;smanship.  197 

arrest  of  the  ringleaders.  Then  convoking  a  Coun- 
cil of  War  on  the  spot  he  had  three  condemned  to 
die,  and  one  of  the  three,  chosen  by  lot,  shot  at 
the  head  of  his  regiment. 

Though  the  strong  hand  of  Cromwell  restored 
discipline,  the  army  was  not  purified  of  its  incip- 
ient republicanism,  and  when  two-thirds  of  the  regi- 
ments declared  that  they  were  ready  to  die  rather 
than  give  up  the  ''Agreement,"  Cromwell  submitted, 
and  peace  with  the  democratic  party  was  signed 
at  Windsor.  And  on  the  20th  of  January,  1648-9, 
the  "Agreement"  was  presented  to  Parliament  in 
the  name  of  the  army  by  the  general-in-chief  and 
his  council  of  officers.  But  grave  business  was  on 
hand,  for  on  that  very  day  the  trial  of  Charles 
Stuart  began,  and  the  democratic  constitution  was 
laid  aside;  it  may  be,  had  been  both  foreseen  and 
discounted.    It  did  not  appear  again. 

The  tenor  of  this  remarkable  document,  as  first 
stated  in  1647,  ^^^  "ot  printed  in  the  original  text 
until  1894,^  can  be  understood  from  a  brief  quo- 
tation from  Article  IV:  "That  the  power  of  this, 
and  all  future  Representatives  of  this  Nation,  is 
inferior  only  to  theirs  who  chuse  them,  and  doth 
extend,  without  the  consent  or  concurrence  of  any 
other  person  or  persons,  to  the  enacting,  altering, 
and  repealing  of  Lawes ;  to  the  erecting  and  abol- 
ishing of  Offices  and  Courts ;  to  the  appointing,  re- 
moving, and  calling  to  account  Magistrates,  and 

1  Borgeaud,  p.  67. 


198         John  Cai^vin:  The  Statesman. 

Officers  of  all  degrees;  to  the  making  War  and 
Peace ;  to  the  treating  with  f orraigne  States :  And 
generally,  to  whatsoever  is  not  expressly,  or  im- 
plyedly  reserved  by  the  represented  themselves." 

After  such  fashion  did  the  soldiers  of  Cromwell 
work  out  a  system  of  government,  expressed  in  a 
written  constitution  and  established  on  the  will 
of  the  people  directly  consulted.  These  soldier 
democrats  were  religious  men,  and  to  their  religion 
must  we  go  if  we  would  understand  their  politics. 
The  source  of  their  ideas  is  the  Bible.  The  example 
of  a  treaty  of  alliance  between  Jehovah  and  His 
people  had  furnished  the  idea  of  a  contract  between 
a  sovereign  and  his  subjects.  This  was  the  first 
form  of  the  theory,  and  it  was  not  long  in  taking 
the  form  of  a  contract  existing  between  individuals 
themselves,  constituting  the  nation.  Now  while 
writers  like  Richard  Hooker  and  Thomas  Hobbes 
represented  the  king  as  one  party  to  the  contract, 
the  soldiers  of  Cromwell  entirely  ignored  the  king, 
and  lifted  the  old  Jewish  and  Huguenot  conception 
out  into  the  clear,  where  men  now  recognize  and 
apply  it.  This  became  the  theory  of  Locke  and 
of  Rousseau,  save  that  they  did  not  regard  it  from 
the  religious  viewpoint. 

In  the  disputes  between  the  Independents  and 
the  Presbyterians,  when  the  latter  affirmed  that  the 
league  of  alliance  mentioned  in  the  Bible  did  not 
mean  a  contract  between  individuals  such  as  the 
Church  Covenant  of  the  Independents,  but  a  league 


Statesmanship.  199 

between  God  and  His  people,  the  Independents 
answered  that  the  one  impHed  the  other.  It  is 
easy  to  see  how  the  founders  of  a  Church  upon  this 
basis  would  act  when  it  came  to  the  organization 
of  a  State.  A  political  community  made  up  of 
Christian  believers  would  most  naturally  transfer 
their  methods  in  the  one  case  to  their  needs  in  the 
other,  and  in  the  organization  of  the  members  of 
the  sovereign  people  into  a  State  would  move  for- 
ward by  sure  stages  to  the  adoption  of  a  constitu- 
tion by  a  popular  vote,  to  the  rule  of  the  majority, 
as  a  necessary  fiction  and  condition  of  a  democratic 
government,  and  finally  to  the  expression  of  it  all 
in  a  written  constitution. 

While  Puritan  democracy  was  beaten  in  the 
strife  with  the  traditions  of  England,  it  gained  a 
victory  in  the  New  World.  The  colonists  of  New 
England  were  exiles  from  the  Puritan  homes  of 
Old  England.  In  the  virgin  soil  the  ideas  rooted 
themselves  immovably  and  grew  with  unexampled 
vigor.  Even  before  the  landing  of  the  men  from 
the  'Mayflower  they  drew  up  their  celebrated  Cove- 
nant, "Anno  Domini,  1620."  Bancroft  has  been 
charged  with  enthusiasm  and  exaggeration  in  say- 
ing, "This  was  the  birth  of  popular  constitutional 
liberty,"  and  that  "in  the  cabin  of  the  Mayflower 
humanity  recovered  its  rights,"  on  the  ground  that 
"humanity"  was  only  about  one  hundred  persons, 
and  that  the  signers  had  no  intention  of  founding 
a  nation,  seeking,  as  they  were,  a  refuge  only.    But 


200         John  Cai^vin:  The;  Statesman. 

when  it  is  remembered  that  the  Covenant  was 
drawn  up  to  silence  some  "strangers"  who  had 
joined  them  in  London,  and  to  unite  the  whole  body 
in  "unitie  and  concord,"  and  that  the  Colonists 
added  a  Plantation  Covenant  or  civil  contract  to 
their  Church  Covenant,  and  that  a  similar  Planta- 
tion Covenant  was  usually  the  first  step  in  the 
founding  of  every  new  settlement,  it  is  not  without 
reason  that  it  has  been  assigned  a  place  in  the  offi- 
cial collection  of  the  Constitutions  of  the  United 
States.  In  the  history  of  the  various  Puritan  set- 
tlements we  find  struggles,  reactions,  and  seces- 
sions, but  they  were  in  some  way  connected  with 
the  very  principle  of  liberty  which  animated  the 
first  exodus  from  the  Mother  Country.  For  when 
the  colonists  of  Massachusetts  Bay  yielded  to  the 
tendency  to  follow  their  leaders  in  a  sort  of  theo- 
cratic aristocracy,  it  fell  out  that  John  Winthrop, 
Jr.,  the  friend  of  Roger  Williams,  and  the  son-in- 
law  of  Hugh  Peters,  the  famous  Independent 
preacher  who  became  Cromwell's  chaplain,  led  the 
secession  to  the  banks  of  the  Connecticut,  and  in 
the  adoption  of  the  Fundamental  Orders  of  Con- 
necticut by  the  General  Assembly  at  Hartford,  on 
January  14,  1638-9,  the  immigrants  formed  the  first 
American  constitution  accepted  by  the  people,  and 
the  first  written  constitution  of  modern  democracy. 
It  has  been  asserted^  that  the  written  Consti- 
tutions of  the  American  Republic  had  their  origin 


Brooks  Adams,  in  AUantic  Monthly,  1884. 


Statesmanship.  201 

in  the  Royal  Charters  granted  during  the  Middle 
Ages  to  the  Companies  of  Merchants,  and  that, 
even  earlier  from  the  evolution  of  the  town  meeting 
among  the  German  races  we  must  date  the  similar 
product  in  the  New  England  colonies.  But  in  reply- 
to  this,  and  to  the  argument  ^  that  the  colonists 
merely  revived  a  custom  which  had  been  in  "oc- 
cultation"  a  thousand  years,  a  "case  of  revival  of 
organs  and  functions  on  the  recurrence  of  the 
primitive  environment,"  the  query  of  Borgeaud  is 
worth  putting  at  the  close  of  this  study  of  the 
origin  of  American  democracy.  How  was  it  "that 
the  revival  of  organs  and  functions"  only  took 
place  in  New  England,  while  the  "recurrence  of 
the  primitive  environment"  equally  prevailed  in  the 
other  colonies  ?"  ^ 

The  fact  is  indisputable  that  the  democratic 
inheritance  from  the  Teutonic  races  was  imperiled 
by  the  aristocratic  transformation  then  in  progress 
in  England,  and  that  the  American  colonists  trans- 
lated their  religious  ideas  into  political  activity, 
else  they  would  not  have  founded  the  democratic 
government  of  the  town  meeting. 

Coming  down  now  to  the  War  of  the  Revolu- 
tion, we  discover  again  the  influence  of  Calvinism. 
According  to  the  same  historian  lately  quoted,  "The 
Revolution  of  1776,  as  far  as  it  was  affected  by  re- 
ligion, was  a  Presbyterian  measure.     It  was  the 


1 G.  E.  Howard,  in  Johns  Hopkins  University  Studies,  vol.  4. 
2  Borgeaud.    Op.  cit.,  140. 


202  John  Cai^vin:  The  Statesman. 

natural  outgrowth  of  the  principles  which  the  Pres- 
byterianism  of  the  Old  World  planted  in  her  sons, 
the  English  Puritans,  the  Scotch  Covenanters,  the 
French  Huguenots,  the  Dutch  Calvinists,  and  the 
(Scotch)  Presbyterians  of  Ulster."  ^  Horace  Wal- 
pole  said  in  the  English  Parliament :  "Cousin  Amer- 
ica has  run  off  with  a  Presbyterian  parson."  The 
reference  was  doubtless  to  Dr.  John  Witherspoon, 
a  Presbyterian  preacher,  the  only  clergyman  in  the 
Continental  Congress,  who  gave  the  deciding  vote 
for  the  adoption  of  the  immortal  Declaration.  Dr. 
Charles  Elliott,  editor  of  the  Western  Christian 
Advocate  (Methodist),  said  that  "in  achieving  the 
liberties  of  the  United  States  the  Presbyterians  of 
every  class  were  foremost,"  and  Dr.  Charles  Hodge 
phrased  the  story  of  the  war  in  happy  fashion  in 
his  remark  that  the  Shorter  Catechism  fought 
through  successfully  the  War  of  American  Inde- 
pendence. 

That  these  high  claims  are  not  without  basis  of 
truth  and  reason,  let  it  be  remembered  that  at  the 
era  of  Independence,  out  of  a  total  population  of 
about  three  million,  nine  hundred  thousand  were 
of  Scotch  or  Scotch-Irish  origin,  six  hundred  thou- 
sand were  Puritan  English,  and  over  four  hundred 
thousand  were  of  Dutch,  German  Reformed,  and 
Huguenot  descent,  nearly  all  of  whom  had  pro- 
nounced Calvinistic  leanings.  Making  all  allow- 
ance for  exaggeration,  the  estimates  are  significant. 


1  Bancroft. 


Statesmanship.  203 

and  go  far  to  buttress  the  vivid  statement  of  Von 
Ranke,  the  profound  historian:  "John  Calvin  was 
the  virtual  founder  of  America." 

Not  much  more  need  be  said,  save  to  repeat 
with  Emerson :  "This  is  the  key  to  the  power  of  the 
greatest   men, — their  spirit  diffuses  itself/* 


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